Created by   inyourdreams 3 years ago |
Music : Jazz : Lossless
Note: this is a vinyl rip from the original LP version of this album. This not from the CD version which was released on 5th June 2007. Therefore, it does not include the CD bonus track "Door Squeak."
Also note that this is in the Shorten lossless format. I imagine that this should play very well in any player. I use foobar2000, and it works just fine.
All Music Guide Review by Sean Westergaard
Strange Strings is a somewhat legendary album from the mid-'60s. "Worlds Approaching" is a great tune, anchored by a bass ostinato and timpani and featuring several fantastic solos, including Marshall Allen aon oboe, Robert Cummings on bass clarinet, John Gilmore on tenor, and Sun Ra on electric piano. Off and on throughout the tune, Bugs Hunter applies near-lethal doses of reverb, giving the piece a very odd but interesting sound. "Strange Strings" is one of those songs that is likely to inspire some sort of "you call that music?" comment from your grandmother, or even from open-minded friends. It sounds like they raided the local pawnshop for anything with strings on it, then passed them out to the bandmembers. It's difficult to tell if some of these instruments have been prepared in some way, or if they're simply being played by untutored hands. There are also lots of drums and some viola playing from Ronnie Boykins that is also treated heavily with reverb. Despite the cacophony, there is a definite ebb and flow to the piece and what seem like different movements or themes. Whatever you think of the music contained, there's no denying that it produced some of the most remarkable sounds of the mid-'60s. If you don't like "out," stay clear of this one.
All About Jazz review by Troy Collins May 31, 2007
Emblematic of its title, this is one of the most unusual albums in the vast discography of visionary bandleader Sun Ra. In league with such classics as Heliocentric Worlds (ESP, 1965), The Magic City (Evidence, 1965) and Atlantis (Evidence, 1967), this obscure session focuses on similarly intense long-form improvisations. Originally recorded in 1966, Strange Strings is the culmination of Ra's most otherworldly experiments.
Pre-dating the comprovisations of Butch Morris and the game pieces of John Zorn, this is a classic example of Ra's conduction methods. With no rehearsal beforehand, (”a study in ignorance,” Ra told his musicians) the results are surprisingly structured and spaciously uncluttered.
The only Sun Ra album of its kind, the title track and “Strange Strange” feature the entire Arkestra playing stringed instruments; ukuleles, banjos, mandolins, kotos, koras and more. In addition to the array of exotic strings, the ensemble features Art Jenkins uttering reverb-drenched mutterings, a huge sheet of tempered metal used as percussion, and a heady dose of intermittent reverb infiltrating everything.
“Worlds Approaching” opens the session dramatically; thundering tympani announcing an ominous, droning bowed bass ostinato, unleashing a slew of acerbic solos from Ra's front line of horn men, with Marshall Allen's fervent oboe heading the charge. Reverb, distortion and echo oscillate randomly throughout the piece, adding a truly surreal quality. Typical of this vintage, the lo-fi recording quality elicits a folksy, music vérité ambience.
“Strange Strings” and “Strange Strange” reverberate with dissonant texture and percussive clatter; the Arkestra eschews horns entirely, using the thrift store strings Ra acquired for them instead. Far less accessible than the opening tune, there is still a definite sense of episodic logic to these pieces. Similar instrumental groupings materialize with regularity, spurring on subtle shifts in sound. Punctuated by Jarvis' explosive percussion tirades, Ra's directorial hand in the proceedings is obvious.
Previously unissued, “Door Squeak” was recorded a year later. As the title suggests, it features Sun Ra playing a door with a squeaky hinge, accompanied by members of the Arkestra playing string instruments. Quieter, but similar to the previous cuts, it exudes a sparse alien sound-scape with Ra's hinge sounding uncannily Moog-like as it descends in pitch.
An anomaly even in the wildly unconventional discography of Sun Ra, this is a revealing listen for those interested in the furthest reaches of experimental music. For those unafraid to take the trip, Strange Strings will definitely take you places you have never been.
excerpt from The Village Voice Jazz Supplement 2006 by John F. Szwed June 6th, 2006
Searching curio shops, Sun Ra assembled a collection of stringed instruments, everything from ukuleles to kotos. He thought there was a way in which strings could reach people differently from the usual brass and reeds. True, the Arkestra didn't know how to play them, but that guaranteed a certain purity. "A study in ignorance," he called it. Add in some homemade instruments, a large sheet of tempered metal hung from the ceiling, a vocalist singing through the wrong end of a ram's horn, no written music or rehearsal, and the results are astonishing. Recorded in the red, with off-and-on echo, the music is all texture. To say that they were out of tune misses the point—there was no tune, and they wouldn't have known how to tune these instruments if there had been. This may be the most successfully improvised group performance in the history of music.
from Dusty Groove America
One of the rarest Sun Ra albums ever -- and one of the most enigmatic, too! Strange Strings is a very unique session recorded with an otherworldly sound -- heavily steeped in the use of "electronic strings", amplified string instruments recorded with crazy echo and other effects, almost sounding like analogue electronics at times. The set also uses a variety of percussion instruments -- including "log drum" and "lightning drum" -- and Ra plays a bit of electronic piano on it as well as a variety of interesting percussion instruments. And if that's not enough, the whole album ends with the spooky sound of Thlan Aldridge on "space voice"! Incredibly cosmic, and quite out at most moments -- with tracks that include "Strange Strange", "Worlds Approaching", and "Strings Strange". CD also features the bonus track "Door Squeak"!
excerpt from Furious.com Perfect Sound Forever interview with John F. Szwed by Billy Bob Hargus (August 1997)
PSF: Are there any personal favorites of Sun Ra's albums that you love to hear?
From the same period, I also like Strange Strings which is a very hard-to-find record. It's a 40 minute piece with guys playing on Asian stringed instruments, none of which they ever played before, boosted their amplification to a crazy point along with a huge piece of sheet metal struck. That sounds like a recipe for disaster. It doesn't go like that. He directed by just pointing at people and they would play. They would say 'what do we do, we've never played these things before.' He said 'that's the point. You're playing from ignorance- it's an exercise in ignorance. We're going to play what you don't know and what you don't know is huge.' I find it an astonishing record that I've listened to over the years. It can't hold your attention for 40 minutes but you know you're hearing something that nobody else would try to do.
from Atavistic Records
“I’m painting pictures of things I know about, and things I’ve felt, that the world just hasn’t had the chance to feel...
I’m painting pictures of another plane of existence, you might say, of something that’s so far away that it seems to be nonexistent. I’m painting pictures of that, but it is a world of happiness which people have been looking for or say they wanted, but they haven’t been able to achieve it.”
-Sun Ra, interviewed by Henry Dumas in 1966
"...all this considered, Strange Strings, the culmination of all Sun Ra’s string studies, is without doubt one of Sun Ra’s master works. Strange Strings, standing squarely alongside Sun Ra’s other epics of the mid 1960s, Atlantis and Magic City, absolutely shines as his most painterly of expositions in its surface richness and play with deep space and coloration. He has offered no world more strange than this in his entire output as a composer and orchestrator. These explorations are only hinted at in scattered moments on other recordings from this period. The full exercise of his very original and very imaginative powers as musical adventurer and visionary bursts forth in the masterful cosmic clattering of Strange Strings." - Hal Rammel, 2006
from Boomkat.com
Props to Atavistic for giving this Sun Ra masterpiece the deluxe reissue treatment. 1966's Strange Strings is the zenith of Sun Ra's analysis of string instruments and, as its title suggests, the album documents Ra's exploration of their outer limits, charting a kind of vivisection of the timbral make up of the traditional string section. The introductory piece 'Worlds Approaching' sets jolting cellos alongside plodding timpanis and some wild brass and woodwinds which out-weird anything on the string front, but by the time we get to the more overtly exploratory title track, the music opens up considerably with grating discord being wrung mercilessly from every quarter, all the while a crazed percussive presence gives a spiny sense of urgency to proceedings. The main course here is 'Strange Strange' which had an entire side of vinyl all to itself on the original issue on Saturn Records. This is where Ra most clearly dismembers the traditional principles of string music, the contorted sounds transformed into something far more metallic sounding but for a few key moments of stillness that allow lonely string plucks to rise from the din. The piece 'Door Squeak' dating a year later than the original Strange Strings sessions is included as a previously unreleased bonus track. As the title suggests, the piece is based around the unruly yet highly musical creaking of a door hinge. It's incredible stuff, possibly even up there with the musique concrete experiments of Pierre Schaeffer that were happening around the same time across the Atlantic. Awesome.
Thoth Intergalactic KH 5472
Saturn LP 502 (1967)
Atavistic ALP263CD (CD, 2007)
Sides A:
Worlds Approaching (Ra)
Ra-Wurlitzer ep, perc; Ali Hassan-tb; Marshall Allen-as, ob; Danny Davis-as, fl; John Gilmore-ts; Pat Patrick-bs, fl; Robert Cummings- bcl; Ronnie Boykins-b; Clifford Jarvis-d, tympani; James Jacson-log drums.
Jacson's drum sound similar to And Otherness. Congested and somewhat distorted sound reminiscent of Spiral Galaxy. New York, prob. 1966 but could be earlier. Different session from Strange Strings.
Strange Strings featuring vocal by Arthur Jenkins (Ra)
Side B:
Strange Strings featuring lightning drum (Ra)
Marshall Allen-strings; Danny Davis-strings; John Gilmore-strings ("a Japanese instrument"); Pat Patrick-strings; Robert Cummings-strings; Ali Hassan-strings; Carl Nimrod-electric strings, perc; Ronnie Boykins-b, vla; Sun Ra-lightning drum, tympani; James Jacson-log drums; Clifford Jarvis-tympani, perc; Art Jenkins-strings, space voice.
(According to Tam Fiofori in a Melody Maker article, the strings include "Chinese lutes, moon-guitars, mandolin, bass, koto"). New York, probably 1966. Raben, Buzelin and Geerken put it in 1964, but see below. Better recording like that of Other Planes of There [Personnel and date from Buzelin; Raben wrongly gives Strings Strange as the title for the first part of Strange Strings and must not have seen the label; Trent, following Schonfield's album list in the 1970 London souvenir program, says 1966. John Gilmore recalls making the string piece after the third ESP album, which would place it in 1966. Label copy courtesy of Jerry Gordon; thanks to Mark Webber for a complete tape]
Mentioned by Tam Fiofori in Jazz and Pop, January 1968. One Thlan Aldridge is listed on the jacket as providing strings and space voice, but Art Jenkins is credited on the label. Geerken and Stahl (and previous versions of this discog) have listed Aldridge and Jenkins as though they were both present. But Victor Schonfield points out that Jenkins is not credited on the original album jacket, and Fitzgerald notes that the Carnegie Hall program for 4/12-13/68 includes as a vocalist "Art Jenkins (=Thlan Aldridge)". In "Sun Ra en de Verwarring" from Jazz Wereld, Aug. 1968, Jenkins is shown playing percussion at Slug's and the caption says that he is also known at Thlan Aldridge (similarly in a photo from Washington DC in the Oct. 68 issue). [rlc]
The 1967 Saturn catalog lists 202-208 and 402-409. So all 500 series items must postdate it. John Szwed bought a copy of Saturn 502 at a concert in 1967 or 1968, and Vuijsje refers to it as brand-new. The familiar cover and back liner are prominently displayed in the 1969 Saturn catalog; no other 500 series LPs are shown. [rlc]
Side A 22:25
Side B 20:02
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