Sun Ras 1971 trip to Egypt came about almost as a snap decision, with Ra tacking last-minute additional dates onto the end of his second European tour with his Arkestra when he found uncommonly cheap airfare to Cairo. Quickly arranged concerts took place in Cairo and were originally documented in the form of three albums released by Ras Saturn label: 1972s Nidhamu and Dark Myth Equation Visit, and 1973s Horizon. Egypt 1971 collects the sounds from these piecemeal releases as well as the rest of the previously unreleased audio from the Egyptian concerts, finding the Arkestra in an especially intense form during a phase that was already among their most creatively boundless. The excitement in the group performances is palpably electric on songs with chanted vocals like To Natures God, Why Go to the Moon?, and the Arkestra calling card Space Is the Place. Over the hours of audio collected on Egypt 1971, Ra and his group traverse multiple executions of their space-age jazz outside of the more structured group songs. Bright improvisations from the entire band and more spare sectional duets are bridged by moments of Sun Ra exploring early synthesizers in a way that would define this phase of his output. Space Loneliness No. 2, in particular, breaks down to Ra alone at the synthesizer, finding the outer reaches of the instrument and the cosmos, as he breaks both jazz theory and sound itself into unrecognizable molecules over the course of the nearly 12-minute piece. Its great to have the entirety of the Egyptian concerts collected in one place on Egypt 1971, offering a snapshot of what was no doubt a jet-lagged and slightly unhinged moment in the groups history, but still stood as astonishing and otherworldly. ~ Fred Thomas

Rovi