From underground hip hop to outernational techno, spiritual jazz to deepest darkest dub and beyond, the unifying inspiration of Sun Ra’s music has permeated many muscial styles and approaches over the years - and indeed continues to do so. His take on art and life was utterly unique, sometimes obtuse and never conventional. The music continues to travel the spaceways even now, with various incarnations of his Arkestra out on the road and even sometime band leader, Marshall Allen, producing new music as he approaches his 102nd birthday.

Ra’s eclectic and experimental way of looking at the world is very much at the heart of new collaborative project pulled together by the Omni Sound label and Ricardo Villalobos. Together they have accessed the recordings of ‘Living Sky’ a 2022 live album by the Arkestra along with

‘My Words Are Music’ a spoken word album on the same label. These two core elements have been fused together by a pretty wide spectrum of producers and some proper names in the rhyme game. A quick scan down the contributor list and the likes of Underground Resistance, Chez Damier and obviously the man Villalobos pop out. But Baris K and Calibre are also in amongst it, to give it the all encompassing, unbounded flavour such a tribute deserves. And in terms of the voices, Saul Williams for one being a name to never not check, along with Anthony Joseph and Abiodun Oyewole of the Last Poets.

So what is the music like? Often such projects struggle to really bring anything new to the table. Something akin to the Cherry Coke effect, nice for a change but ultimately just a reminder of how good the original was. Fortunately that’s not the case here, each producer bringing their own special something, and often surprising in what that is. A stripped back piano and electronic background for example from A Guy Called Gerald on ‘Message to Black Youth’ or Calibre’s ambient soundscapes and plaintive expansions on ‘Chopin’. Chez Damier and Ben Vedren really bring a spirituality and groove to ‘The Three Dimensions of Air’ which perfectly match the delicate but authoritative delivery of Anthony Joseph. Meanwhile Baris K and Abiodun Oyewole take a more angular course, chopping the beats and dropping various snatches of sound and speech.

RV himself, just goes for broke as only he can with a couple of ten minute monsters, not really messing about, carving a path in his own inimitable style with the Arketra’s own Tara Middleton joining in for an avant garde excursion in deep minimal techno. Finally sitting somewhere in between, and probably sailing closest to the jazz winds, is SHE Spells Doom turning out a house kick with ‘Portrait of the Living’. And not forgetting UR, being matched with Saul Williams just seems like something that should have happened a long time ago….classic Detroit and perfect spoken word accompaniment. Each producer gets two bites of Sun Ra cherry, giving some nice alternatives and points of difference for each to show what they can do, making this more way than just a vanity project or collab for the sake of it and well worth extended investigations. Sun Ra said that he would speak through music, and the world would listen, with this one his words and sounds live on.

When there is no Sun is out now via Omni Sound..