Exclusive selection from UK’s leading DJ for jazz-based music, Gilles Peterson - strong, accessible introduction to Sun Ra’s music and a perfect complement to the Marshall Allen compilation on Strut from 2014 - album features exclusive previously unreleased Sun Ra recordings and many tracks appearing on CD and LP for the first time. “Sun Ra and the Arkestra were the original DIY group. What went on in
1970s punk with self-pressed records and hand-drawn artwork – Ra was doing that in the ‘50s and ‘60s. The music was phenomenal - Sun Ra was the man, the ultimate artist for any vinyl collector.“ Gilles Peterson Strut follow up their hugely successful Marshall Allen-curated ‘In The Orbit Of Ra’ compilation with a newly curated set from the immense 125 LP back catalogue of jazz maverick, DIY philosopher and self-professed member of an “angel race”, Sun Ra. ‘To Those Of Earth… And Other Worlds’ is a handpicked selection from BBC 6Music DJ Gilles Peterson, long-time champion of Ra’s music and the UK’s leading tastemaker for jazz-based sounds. It serves as perhaps the best introduction yet to the music of Sun Ra for a whole new generation of converts. Sun Ra was a one-off in the annals of jazz. As author Robert L. Campbell describes, “He claimed to be the last of the swing band leaders, yet dosed classic songs with LSD. He wrote poetry about the “coming space age” and claimed to be a citizen of Saturn. He dressed himself and his band in goldlame and lectured on the Creator ’s message to the cruel and deceitful Earthman. He named himself after an Egyptian God. Was this guy for real? Sun Ra was very much for real.”