A compelling range of covers and homages, all-time heroes and new discoveries, to lift the spirits.

‘New and archival recordings all orbiting around the intergalactic soundscape introduced by Sun Ra. Ra’s own a capella I Don’t Believe in Love, recorded by Ra at home in Chicago during the 1950s, kicks the program off. This intimate private recording is followed by two intense new solo improvisations by French guitarist Raymond Boni, one acoustic and one electric, inspired by seeing the Arkestra preparing for a gig in Arles in 1976. The first side wraps up with Jason Adasiewicz’s riveting unaccompanied vibraphone workout on Ra’s Lanquidity and Where Pathways Meet. With a completely different take on Lanquidity, Side Two begins with four wild remixes by legendary Cologne techno pioneer Wolfgang Voigt, using layered samples from the LP. Hailing from the intersection of free jazz and out rock, Ken Vandermark’s band Spaceways Inc., with bassist Nate McBride and drummer Hamid Drake, continue with a Ra medley, in collaboration with the Italian band Zu. And where the program started in disbelief, love-skepticism, it concludes with Joe McPhee’s emphatic loving embrace on Cosmic Love, a classic tenor/synth sound-on-sound recording from 1970.’
With cover art by Emil Schult, who designed classic 1970s LPs for Kraftwerk. Very limited.

Founded in Aachen in 1980 by Rainer Wiedensohler, Nabel released jazz and improvised music only from Europe, avowedly ‘in contrast to the American mainstream of today’s jazz’. Quickly it became a home for innovative musicians blending classic jazz with fusion, Latin and Brazilian rhythms, and the avant-garde.
‘This compilation collects some of the label’s finest moments — the soulful, Latin-tinged brilliance of the Monika Linges Quartet, the cosmic jazz explorations of John Thomas & Lifeforce, the deep jazz-funk grooves of Hipsters In The Zone, and the stunning, expressive vocals of Maria Joao.’