Re: "The Sun Myth" on ESP 1017

From: Sun Ra and his Arkestra on behalf of Chris Trent Sent: Monday, February 03, 1997 5:23 PM To: SATURN@NIC.SURFNET.NL Subject: "The Sun Myth" on ESP 1017

Chris,

With regrets, please remove my name from the subscribers' listing. My best wishes to all.

Scott Black sfblack@msn.com

I only realised very recently, thanks to Victor Schonfield and especially to Julian Vein, that there are three differently edited versions of "The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra volume 2" around. They differ on side A only - i.e. the 17 minute track "The Sun Myth".

What seems to be the earliest release of the LP had singing audible (in fact, loud) throughout the piece. This version of the LP has an additional matrix number: "152" on side A. This may have been a mono-only release.

Later, side A was remastered, and in this version the voices can be heard in the background at the beginning and end of the piece. This version has markings: "ESPS1017-A(68)", "ANM967" and "DBH".

Later still, another remastering was done: the voices were edited out altogether. This seems to the version used on all later LPs, and also the various CDs, both legitimate and bootleg. (And the reissues were legion, under many different album titles.)

Does anyone on this list have either -

• a stereo copy of the first version with loud voices

or - a CD with voices?

If nobody can turn up either of these, then it will tend to confirm our guesses that (a) there was no stereo edition of the first version, and (b) that only the final mix was used for all those reissues. On the other hand, one or the other may exist, after all.

Artistically, I'd have to say that Sun Ra and/or Stollman were right to can that first version: I find the loud singing very obtrusive. I quite like the second variant, though - the subliminal voices add considerably to the atmosphere.

Chris Trent