Customer Reviews

Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy / Art Forms of

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Why you should buy this album: 1.It sounds like a transmission from the hippest radio station in outer space. 2.It contains fully successful examples of futurist and minimalist compositions, written by a man who most likely had never before encountered either term. 3.It will make you more intelligent and hip. 4.It makes the psychedelic music of the hippie era sound tame. It was also recorded four years before the first acid test. 5.It's damned funky. Find out what you're missing.

This CD brings together two of Sun Ra's landmark albums from the early 60's. Tracks 1-5 comprise `Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy' (Dated 1963) & tracks 6-12 make up `Art Forms of Dimensions Tomorrow' (Dated 1961-1962). As with all the Sun Ra reissues on Evidence the `scene setting' sleeve notes are extensive, well researched and really help you to understand how the music was created and what it's all about.

And as you listen to this music it's easy to imagine that the Arkestra are playing along to some surreal sci-fi movie, maybe a film that only existed in Sun Ra's mind? Who knows? What I do know is this album has a timeless quality and I'll never grow tired of listening to it. Tracks 1-3 are all in a similar vein, each with slightly differing arrangements and varying amounts of delay. In fact the use of an echo box throughout the album is awesome. Check out Track 2 (Thither and Yon), Track 5 (Voice of Space) with its haunting sax solos and beautiful bass, and Track 8 (Solar Drums) a complete delay-fest extravaganza! I can't think of another artist who was creating similar `sound-scapes' at the beginning of the sixties, with the exception of early sci-fi films such as `Forbidden Planet'. Sun Ra doesn't make his presence felt (other than as producer, arranger and mixer) until Track 4 (Moon Dance). This is my favourite track, featuring some awesome organ playing from the leader and a bass riff that wouldn't sound out of place on a funk/jazz album released today. Track 6 (Cluster of Galaxies) is another excellent sound experiment, and the louder you have the volume set during Track 10 (Infinity of the Universe) the better! All in all... this is classic Sun Ra. You can even hear a telephone ringing half way through Track 3 (Adventure-Equation) and then again at the end of that track! Perhaps it was the Mother ship calling....

One thing that always strikes me when listening to this CD is how far ahead of its time it was. It anticipates the psychedelic movement of the late 60's and the fusion of the 70's, while simultaneously reaffirming Sun Ra's position as a heavyweight player in the Avant-Garde jazz scene. Trust me... You cannot overlook this album!

Sun Ra was in tune with cosmic energies, and was influenced by heliocentric sound waves.
Whether or not this is taken literally, I have no doubt, after listening to this cd, that Sun Ra heard things his own way, and succeeded in transmitting what he heard to his Arkestra.
The music here is simultaneously primitive and ultra modern. John gilmore's solo on the third track, for example, reminds alot of Ethiopian music and even Sudanese music. The liner notes say it is the call of a Muezin. The rhythms move from sounding African to sounding solar, with surprising fluency. Some of the interplay between the horns, on a few tracks, are so creative and effective, that their effect on me is hard to describe.
I see the influence of Ra's music on so many things, such as energy music, the AACM (the way he uses space and silence), and on other styles, outside of jazz. All this while defying commercialism, staying true to his artistic vision, and maintaining wonderful orchestra's for so many years.
It is a rare priviledge for us mere mortals to listen to the music of Sun Ra, enjoy it and even write about it.

I have been making my way through the various CD reissues of Sun Ra recordings over the last 2 years, always with respect, and usually with genuine enjoyment, but this one has rocketed to the top of the list. Everything I read about Sun Ra in John F. Szwed's wonderful "Space is the Place" biography is finally revealed in this tremendously inspired recording. There is a joyfulness about the improvisation in these performances that is totally seductive, and the musical textures are wonderfully balanced and uncluttered. None of the musicians get in each other's way, and the music is never mushy and confused. The group really does sound like it is exploring the unknown together and wants to take the listener along. Although you can hear influences of all sorts of music (swing, "classical" avant-garde, bop, etc.), it defies categorization. A totally uplifting musical experience.

This is great Sun Ra, but by all means don't start here. Its crazy, surreal, and inaccesible, more so than "Space Is the Place" or "Easy Listening for Intergalatic Travel". However, if you are familiar with Sun Ra, but considor yourself a casual fan than this is an album to buy. It will help you delve into the world of the greatest Jazz artist who ever lived. Back in 8th grade I took a general music class, which was all about learning the history of jazz to attempt to make all the kid's taste in music better (it, for the most part, alienated them ever further). One of the albums our teacher played was this one, and the reaction of the class was pretty much the same. "Is this music?" As my tastes have matured, I grew to appreciate avant-garde music, the deconstruction and often times lack of a central rhythm. The music here isn't catchy, and it may appear to many as unlistenable. However, if you have a taste for weird and unusual music, you will fall in love with this album. This is more for fans of The Shaggs and Captain Beefheart than it is for fans of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. Don't get the impression that Sun Ra and his band is merely jamming here however - its all part of a great artistic vision.

Cosmic Tones For Mental Therapy and Art Forms Of Dimensions Tomorrow by Sun Ra and his Myth Science Arkestra is quite a formidable title by any measure - and yet - when you actually listen to this astonishing piece of work you will find yourself thoroughly convinced - indeed - it is the only possible name for it.

They say that for an alcoholic, one drink is too many and one thousand aren't enough. I have discovered the same to be true of Sun Ra CDs, which seem to be breeding on my wall. Hearing one is too much because once you've listened it's too late to pretend you haven't heard what you've heard. One thousand aren't enough because each is different, the product of a man who explored constantly, driven by an inspired and fearless abandon.

Sun Ra CDs seem to break down into two categories, the really sharp old school jazz CDs and the intergalactic travel CDs. While I have praised Heliocentric Worlds Volume 1 in the past, I now think this is the indispensable Sun Ra CD - the one you simply MUST own. More than any other I've heard it bridges the gap between the two worlds of Sun Ra, in fact, listening to this CD it's difficult to tell which world you're in. At times it might be Morocco, other times it might be a spaceship rounding Venus, then again, some moments feel like a Cuban nightclub in the 1950's.

Maybe that's the real poetry of Sun Ra, you can never be really sure of anything. I may be back soon to revise my opinion again, after probing deeper into the enchanted world of Sun Ra. I wouldn't be at all surprised if I were again surprised.

Much of what was unique about the original Pink Floyd's sound - the use of echo and piercing organ for musical effect - is present here, Floyd fans take note. Wonder if Syd Barrett had been exposed to Sun Ra's music.

"Cosmic Tones" sounds like a 20th Century space-inflected chamber music quite unlike jazz, though it contains elements of it. The music attempts to paint pictures in an abstract fashion unencumbered by notions of traditional musical form. Instruments enter, contribute to the picture, and then echo endlessly into the ether. The format works especially well on "Adventure-Equation" which features John Gilmore's sax at length over a shifting backdrop of percussion, and functions as a brilliantly constructed, unique musical statement.

"Art Forms" is mostly forgettable; the most unique moments on it are those where Bugs Hunter (who recorded these sessions) experiments with recording echo (the technique later used more subtly on "Cosmic Tones").

Just like Sonic Youth's Bad Moon Rising or Captain Beefhart's Trout Mask Replica or Mr. Bungle's Disco Volante or anything by John Zorn or any highly innovative peice of avant garde music, this is a truly creative---and unabashed---raw document of a true innovator of jazz. Now granted, I'm not a huge collector of jazz overall; I dig it, but have never really delved into getting any actual records, but I have listened to some of the innovators of the genre, whether known or unknown: Thelonius Monk, Dizzy Gelleispe, John Coltrane, Diego Reinhardt (ok, that's gypsy, but it has the same improvizational techniques). But, even with my limited knowledge of this genre, I can tell you that Sun Ra is one of the coolest and most unknown of the genre. Diverse all around with over 30 records, this record probably ranks among his strangest: recorded on a cheap tape recorder even for the time it was recorded (50's, 60s), it's an intense mind-expanding psychadelica document that rears between random note playing and well-organized playing that is sometimes imperfect in itself. Becuz of the fact that alot of the songs are chaotic and out-of-sync, drenched with this old-fasioned reverb technique, the album gears more towards punk or no-wave or "improvisational punk jazz". Imagine, punk almost 20 or 25 years before the real thing came along, just done with different instruments. And the diversity is also amazing---Arabic or Sudanic bagpipe type saxophones, peices of glass and chimes, various drums,spooky amp-distorted organ, and even a distant telephone (probably unintentional; remember, this is a primarily spontaneous and raw recorded session) all make their way in with the traditional jazz elements. Point being, this is something to listen to slowly and let the abstract sounds and tones engulf you---an unusual, random, awesome, spaced-out, lo-fi jazz collection lost in the debris of cosmic past.

I recommend that anyone who listens to this music not judge it until the music has had enough time to seep through the soul.
It took a while for me, but once adapted I became hooked on this music.
On one hand the music seems very free and explorative ("Voice of Space", "And Otherness"), and on the other it contains some very interesting rhythms (check out "adventure-equation" and "Moon Dance"!) and elements of what one might call swing or bebop ("Ankh"). In any case, it seems very creative, honest, and a joy to listen to. I think what surprises me the most is that probably less than 1 in 10,000 people who listen to music have even heard of Sun Ra, much less any of his music. How sad! Somewhat less surprising is the fact that this music is 40 years old and unbelievably ahead of its time. In fact, listen closely to adventure-equation and you can hear a ringing phone! which resembles the loop sampling that is so popular with today's music.

"Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy" tops the list for all-time greatest album title (tied with "Weasels Ripped My Flesh"). The thought of these sonic vibrations from outer space reconfiguring your neural synapses is actually quite appealing. This stuff really does sound like it's from "out there"! The echo and reverb drenched and somewhat low-budget sound actually gives it extra charm.

The music on "Cosmic Tones" is very abstract. It sounds quite bizzare in 2007, so I can only image what it must have sounded to people in 1961 - not even Ornette Coleman or Cecil Taylor we doing stuff this far out in 1961.

"Art Forms of Dimensions Tomorrow" is a transitional work between straight jazz and the free space music of "Cosmic Tones". It's certainly enjoyable music, but for me it's less interesting.

I was lucky to see Sun Ra Live in 1988 and 1990, and actually had a few words with him in 1990. Despite being wheelchair-ridden he still had tremendous presence and a projected a very joyful vibe. This joyfulness comes across in all of his music, which is one of the things that most appeals to me.

This album is as good a place to start as any, if you are interested in exploring Sun Ra's universe.