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Featuring what may be his only recordings on the Prophet keyboard,
these once lost performances expand the omniverse of Ra across a
stellar set of lengthy cuts! All recorded in a single day and fnally making
their terrestrial debut! Includes notes from Ranthropologist Brother Cleve
and two CD-only bonus tracks!What happens when a Prophet meets a
Prophet? The answer lies within these grooves.
Amongst the hundreds of recordings issued by Sun Ra and his Arkestra, under
their various guises, the majority were recorded in concert or in makeshift studios
such as their early 1960s set- up at NYC's Choreographer's Workshop. Beyond
those, roughly 22 albums were recorded at Variety Recording Studio in New
York's Times Square. However, on August 25, 1986, Sun Ra and cohorts entered
Mission Control, a state- of-the- art 24-track studio north of Boston, which was
teeming with electronic keyboards and otherworldly sound generators. Nestled
within that arsenal was a brand- new digital ultra keyboard — the Prophet VS
("Vector Synthesizer").Of all the keyboards Ra played throughout his half-century
career, the Prophet was one of the most sophisticated. There's no evidence that
he had played either of the instrument's earlier incarnations, the Sequential
Circuits Prophet-5 and Prophet-10. Created using microprocessors, a then- new
technological advance, under the auspices of engineer Dave Smith in 1978, the
Prophet-5 revolutionized electronic music as the frst polyphonic and, most
importantly, programmable synthesizer.Ra was intrigued by the Prophet (surely by
the instrument as well as by the name). Recorded during a single day, it's about
time that these once lost performances have now been found.It was a joy and a
thrill to be sitting at the console hearing this music for the frst time, especially
with my fngers on the faders and knobs of the mixing desk. We watched the
oxide fy off the 2" tapes during playback, making this our one chance to digitize
before they metamorphosed into dust. Welcome to the new Sun Ra album….35+
years after it was recorded. The Omniverse has expanded once again.— Brother
Cleve (1955 - 2022)
Tracklist
LP
The Prophet
Infnity Excursion
The Prophet At Play
The Prophet Returns
CD
The Prophet
Infnity Excursion
The Prophet At Play
The Prophet Returns
They Plan To Leave
They’ll Come Back