Sun Ra

“Hidden Fire” returns from the Saturn archives as a blazing late ’80s testament: Sun Ra leading a uniquely configured Arkestra—complete with a rare string section and the great Billy Bang—through incantatory sermons, free jazz infernos and modal blues (Strut, STRUTLP475). Recorded at New York’s Knitting Factory and originally issued in two volumes, this definitive reissue unites them into an immersive double album. Hear Ra preach over a palindromic riff on “Retrospect / This World Is Not My Home,” then plunge into the title improvisation’s furnace of reeds, strings and cascading synth. A profound, late period Sun Ra document—urgent, human and otherworldly at once.