Pathways to Unknown Worlds / Friendly Love
This CD consists of two Sun Ra LPs from 1973. The first was briefly available as an Impulse record, while the latter has never been released in any form. Both consist of guided improvisations in which Sun Ra cued the group's entries and combinations, creating multilevel performances with remarkable shifts in density and unusual play with sound. The title track ofPathwaysopens with a set of acoustic contrasts provided by bass clarinet, oboe, and muted trumpet that Sun Ra expands and shifts with mini-Moog and an electric keyboard vibraphone. Elsewhere, almost ambient keyboard parts collide with blistering saxophone solos so overblown and distorted that they might be played through guitar pedals. OnFriendly Love, the preoccupation with unusual tonal mixtures extends even further, encompassing bizarre sound sources that emphasize the lowest frequencies. The "space dimension mellophone" played by Akh Tal Ebah on "Friendly Love II" has a bassoon reed inserted in the mouthpiece; the "Neptunian libiflecto" is a bassoon fitted with the mouthpiece of a brass instrument. And Eloe Omoe's contra-alto clarinet is pitched lower than a bass. It's Sun Ra in some of the deepest recesses of space, creating oddly somber and meditative music that's suddenly traversed by moments of strange light or almost conventional lyricism.--Stuart Broomer