Customer Reviews

Strange Strings (1966)

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There are a considerable number of Sun Ra sessions available on CD, but the welcome appearance of this vital disc completes the availability of his most important works. (I phoned the kind folks at Evidence a number of years ago, begging for a "Strings" release, but their response was that they didn't have a decent master tape of it, even if the LP was still being pressed.)

Strings comes from the mid-60's NYC period when Mr. Mystery was at his creative height, releasing such classics as Cosmic Tones, Heliocentric Worlds and the Magic City. Each is unique, but Strings completely stands out in terms of one of a kind brilliance.

Sonny sent his band over to a 3rd world import shop to pick up various modest hand made musical instruments. Then, after scant time to become at all familiar with them, he turned on the tape deck and conducted his band into a performance that is both fascinating and compelling. It is pure magic. Highest possible recommendation to anyone seeking a most bold and adventurous work of art.

This CD tacks on an additional track recorded a year after the first three. It consists of Sonny playing a squeaking door, accompanied by a couple of those plucking strings. While it may not be his most compelling composition, it must be said that he puts his complete focus into getting everything he can out of that squeak, extracting a strong fundamental tone that has an almost synthesized quality. As usual his Saturian mind was sensitive to sound potentials that elude the imagination of mere earthlings.

"I'm painting pictures of things I know about, and things I've felt, that the world hasn't had the chance to feel..." -Sun Ra, interviewed by Henry Dumas in 1966.
Recorded in 1966, and first published in 1967,this is the peak of Sun Ra's studies on possibilities of strings' sound.
The Arkestra uses here a huge range of strings instruments, from the usual (like double bass and viola), to the exotic ones (ukelin, bandura, zither,dutar and others), identified in the original liner notes as "electronic strings", but that were acoustic instruments amplified with microphones placed very close to the sound hole, and then treated with reverb and distortion.
Track One "Worlds Approaching" has still a comforting arrangement of the horns and rhythm section, with solos of saxophone and trombone and a metal percussion that supports the solos and persists throughout the track.
On Track Two and Three "Strings Strange" and "Strange Strange",there's no more horn section and enter the strings, joined by the same metal percussion that could be heard at the end of "World Approaching".
Atmosphere has changed now: there are some Eastern reminiscences but it seems to listen to an avant european combo of the 70's.
Track Four "Door Squeak" is the bonus track, recorded in 1967 and previously unissued.
This recording, as said by Hal Rammel in the liner notes "trumps even Strange Strings in musical singularity". Sun Ra plays a squeaking door to the accompaniment of the strings and some on-and-off percussion: the resulting mix is unique and miraculous, an exploration of the deep space sound .
Thanks to Atavistic for this wonderful reissue: it is perhaps the most difficult of all Sun Ra's records, but is one of his masterpieces and worth a careful listening.

Recorded in 1966 and 1967, the music is perhaps the most experimental in the vast discography of Sun Ra. The Arkestra plays stringed instruments - kotos, banjos, ukuleles, koras - with no prior rehearsals.

Worlds Approaching is a true ambiance of noise, while a dense soundscape is built upon in Strange Strings and Strange Strange. The later number - Door Squeak - finds Sun Ra "playing" a door with a squeaky hinge, while the Arkestra weaves around that sound.

The focus is on performance art and the work of artists with unfamiliar instruments to create spontaneous music.

Upon its premiere the Rite of Spring probably sounded much like "Worlds Approaching" to all the unprepared ears. It's a savage piece that pounds along with an intense and chaotic pulse, a violently lurching monstrosity. "Worlds Approaching," "Strange Strings" and "Strange Strange" are all composed with equal parts barbaric slashing/thrashing and schizophrenic delicacy; the quiet passages of each piece are fragile and carry hints of drone music. As much as Ra was pushing jazz to its limits with free jazz he was also pushing music to the limits of logic. The bonus track, "Door Squeak," is one of those pieces that utterly rejects any sense of classification or purpose. Ra uses the squeaky hinges of a door to articulate little clusters of noise. Its very Dada-esque in the way of Marcel Duchamp or Steven Stapleton and exhibits Ra's exceptional understanding of found sound. With Strange Strings Ra is still pushing boundaries with free jazz but he is also entering into the discourse of avant garde and experimental music.

The first two things that came to mind upon hearing this for the first time recently were Ornette Coleman's "Skies of America" and Butch Morris' comprovisations. Imagine that tradition--of free jazz/creative modern musicians using symphonic or large ensemble elements as a palette. Gorgeous, droning, and distinct even in Sun Ra's diverse canon. Recommended.