Hidden Fire by Sun Ra & His Arkestra

This represents the first official reissue of Hidden Fire Volumes 1 & 2, the final albums released by Sun Ra on his El Saturn label.

Captured live over three nights at the Knitting Factory in New York City, these performances mark the closing chapter of a 33-year odyssey of radical, independent music-making. Originally issued in 1988 in limited press runs with minimal packaging and cryptic artwork—often featuring hand-written labels or Ra’s own handmade designs—Hidden Fire was among the most elusive entries in Sun Ra’s vast discography.

Musically, these recordings stand apart from Ra’s other '80s releases. Hidden Fire plunges into darker, more dissonant territory. Ra performs exclusively on the Yamaha DX7 synthesizer, pushing its digital sound palette into alien dimensions.

The Arkestra lineup is uniquely configured, featuring a rare and heavy string section with two violins, including the legendary Billy Bang, and singular space vocalist Art Jenkins, whose eerie textures and odd vocalese had not been heard so prominently since Sun Ra's early 1960s Choreographers Workshop sessions. The music is raw, unsettled, and often overwhelming.

“Retrospect / This World Is Not My Home” opens with a palindromic riff that evokes Ellington before unraveling into a stark sermon from Ra, warning of death’s dominion over Earth-bound minds. “Hidden Fire Improvisation” is a furious explosion of tone science, with Marshall Allen, Billy Bang, and John Gilmore delivering fire-breathing solos over relentless drumming and Ra’s cascading synth clusters. “Hidden Fire Blues” offers a warped, electrified version of Ra’s familiar blues offerings, led by Bruce Edwards on guitar and Rollo Radford on electric bass, transformed through the haze of DX7 textures. “My Brothers the Wind and Sun #9” evokes the experimental weight of 1965's The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, with its crashing percussion, pulsing synth-vocal duets, and string-driven chaos that seem to spiral into oblivion.

Even the quieter moments—such as “Hidden Fire II,” a duet between Ra and Jenkins—feel thick with unease and shadowy beauty. These performances represent a Sun Ra less concerned with cosmic joy or outer-space swing, and more focused on mapping portals to uncharted worlds.

Remastered from original sources, the LP and CD versions include archival photos, liner notes by Ra scholar Paul Griffiths, and restored artwork inspired by the original Saturn editions.

A Helpful Guide to the Many Sun Ra Albums on Bandcamp: daily.bandcamp.com/2017/10/13/sun-ra-album-guide
The foremost figure in musical Afro-futurism and space-jazz. Keyboardist, composer, Arkestra leader, arranger, philosopher-jester, fashion icon, cosmic guide. Born Herman Blount in Alabama, 1914, left the planet in 1993, giving Earthlings a monumental catalog of recordings that transcend genre.

sunra.com