Sun Ra & His Arkestra - Thunder of the Gods LP

Sun Ra and the Arkestra weren’t a traditional studio band, and every star in the vast galaxy of their discography reflects this. The origins of these records can be hard to pinpoint at times, but when it comes to Thunder Of The Gods, it’s a bit easier.

“Calling Planet Earth – We’ll Wait For You” was discovered on tapes from Ra’s Universe In Blue sessions, believed to be recorded in ’71. The raucous title track and “Moonshots Across the Sky” were unearthed from the 1966 Strange Strings sessions. These previously overlooked gems were discovered by Michael D. Anderson of the Sun Ra Music Archive, the world's largest private collection of Sun Ra session recordings.

The Modern Harmonic label, who issued this trinity on vinyl and CD, paired Ra’s sonic art with the visual art of “The Father of Modern Space Art,” Chesley Bonestell, by adapting his 1952 work ”Formation of the Earth’s Continents” on the front cover.

"Thanks to Modern Harmonic, in partnership with Sun Ra LLC, you can be holding an album of unreleased Sun Ra music 50 years after it was recorded! That this music survived to reach our ears after all of this time is a miraculous gift. It sounds as though it could have come from either the ancient past or the distant future, yet most perfectly, it’s the music of right now.” — Christopher Eddy (Sun Ra scholar and co-proprietor of the Sun Ra Arkive blog)