''Art Forms of Dimensions Tomorrow'' is an album by the American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

musician

Sun Ra Le Sony'r Ra (born Herman Poole Blount, May 22, 1914 – May 30, 1993), better known as Sun Ra, was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, "cosmic" philosophy, prolific ou ...

and his Solar Arkestra. Often considered the first of Ra's 'outside' recordings, the album was the first to make extensive use of a discovery by the Arkestra's drummer and engineer Tommy Hunter:

Art Forms of Dimensions Tomorrow''.... contained "Cluster of Galaxies" and "Solar Drums", two rhythm section exercises with the sound treated with such strange reverberations that they threatened to obliterate the instruments' identity and turn the music into low-budget
musique concrète Musique concrète (; ): " problem for any translator of an academic work in French is that the language is relatively abstract and theoretical compared to English; one might even say that the mode of thinking itself tends to be more schematic ...
. While testing the tape recorder when the musicians were tuning up one day, Hunter had discovered that if he recorded with the earphones on, he could run a cable from the output jack back into the input on the recorder and produce massive reverberation:

"I wasn't sure what Sun Ra would think of it... I thought he might be mad - but he loved it. It blew his mind! By working the volume of the output on the playback I could control the effect, make it fast or slow, drop it out, or whatever." ommy Hunter

'By the 1950s commercial recording companies had developed a classical style of recording which assured that the recording process itself would be invisible... but Sun Ra began to regularly violate this convention on the Saturn releases by recording live at strange sites, by using feedback, distortion, high delay or reverb, unusual microphone placement, abrupt fades or edits, and any number of other effects or noises which called attention to the recording process. On some recordings you could hear a phone ringing, or someone walking near the microphone. It was a rough style of production, an antistyle, a self-reflexive approach which anticipates both
free jazz Free jazz, or free form in the early to mid-1970s, is a style of avant-garde jazz or an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventi ...
recording conventions and
punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
production to come.' John F Szwed John F Szwed, Space Is The Place (book), Mojo, 2000, p187-188, including a quote from Tommy Hunter

The sleeve was designed by Sun Ra. When re-issued on compact disc by Evidence in 1992, the album was joined with the contemporaneous '' Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy''.

Track listing

12-inch vinyl

All songs by Sun Ra
Side A: # "Cluster of Galaxies" - (2.22) # "Ankh" - (6.08) # "Solar Drums" - (2.27) # "The Outer Heavens" - (4.47) Side B: # "Infinity of the Universe" - (7.08) # "Lights on a Satellite" - (3.08) # "Kosmos in Blue" - (8.06)

Musicians

* Sun Ra - Piano, Sun Harp, Gong, Percussion * Manny Smith - Trumpet *

Clifford Thornton Clifford Edward Thornton III (September 6, 1936 – November 25, 1989) was an American jazz trumpeter, trombonist, political activist, and educator. He played free jazz and avant-garde jazz in the 1960s and '70s. Career Clifford was born in Phil ...

- Trumpet on ''Infinity of the Universe'' * Ali Hassan - Trombone * Pat Patrick - Baritone Sax, Percussion, Clarinet *

John Gilmore John Gilmore may refer to: * John Gilmore (activist) (born 1955), co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Cygnus Solutions * John Gilmore (musician) (1931–1995), American jazz saxophonist * John Gilmore (representative) (1780–1845), ...

- Tenor Sax, Bass Clarinet, Percussion *

Marshall Allen Marshall Belford Allen (born May 25, 1924) is an American free jazz and avant-garde jazz alto saxophone player. He also performs on flute, oboe, piccolo, and the EWI. Allen is best known for his work with Sun Ra, having recorded and performed ...

- Alto Sax, Bells, Percussion *

Ronnie Boykins Ronald Boykins (December 17, 1935 – April 20, 1980) was a jazz double bass, bassist and is best known for his work with pianist/bandleader Sun Ra, although he had played with such disparate musicians as Muddy Waters, Johnny Griffin, and Jimmy Wi ...

- Bass * John Ore - Second Bass on ''Kosmos in Blue'' * C. Scoby Stroman - Drums, Percussion * Clifford Jarvis - Drums on ''Infinity of the Universe'' * Tommy Hunter - Drums, Percussion on ''Cluster of Galaxies'', ''Lights on a Satellite'' and ''Kosmos in Blue'' Recorded entirely at the Choreographer's Workshop, New York (the Arkestra's rehearsal space) in 1962, except "Lights on a Satellite" and "Kosmos in Blue", recorded in the same location in either November or December 1961.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Art Forms Of Dimensions Tomorrow (Album) Sun Ra albums 1962 albums El Saturn Records albums Evidence Music albums