Label: Otherly Love Records, 2025
Personnel - Marshall Allen: alto saxophone, EVI, synth, vocals;
Now 101 years old, the incredible maestro Marshall Allen — who joined the Sun Ra Arkestra in 1957 and has led it since 1995 — releases a new live record with his Ghost Horizons group, curated by Arkestra guitarist David Middleton (aka D.M. Hotep), who appears on every track. Recorded in Philadelphia, the album brings Allen together with a younger generation of artists including saxophonists Immanuel Wilkins, James Brandon Lewis, and Elliott Levin; bassists Luke Stewart, Eric Revis, and William Parker; keyboardist Brian Marsella; drummer Chad Taylor; and others.
Sun Ra’s “Seductive Fantasy”, first recorded in 1979 for On Jupiter, opens the album in a quintet setting, with Allen’s raspy growls paired against trombonist Dave Davis. Hotep jags and slices through on guitar, eventually breaking into river-runs over Stewart and Taylor’s lithe rhythm. The same unit delivers “Tachyons Flux From the Cosmic Blueprints”, a more restrained, cyclic blues march.
Sun Ra’s presence resurfaces again on “We’ll Wait For You/Hit That Jive, Jack”, though the album also ventures into unexpected rock territories. “Back To You”, featuring the experimental duo Wolf Eyes, channels the shadowy corners of Joy Division with stratospheric electronics and serrated drones. “Square the Circle” rides a rock-steeped backbeat and straightforward bass lines, courtesy of Charlie Hall (The War On Drugs) and James McNew (Yo La Tengo). It arrives interlaced in guitars.
Levin contributes a feverish solo to “Stay Lifted”, a worthwhile astral excursion, and also appears on “Space Ghosts”, where shifting grooves gradually dissolve into fade-out. “Cosmic Dreamers, Ode to Elegua” folds in Eastern touches, a trio of batá drums, ritualistic chants from Joseph Toledo, and Allen’s indomitable alto fire. Yet one of the standout moments is “Slip Stream”, an ambient-funk voyage elevated by Wilkins’ soulful avant-garde flourishes, Marsella’s luminous comping, and Taylor’s perfectly attuned drumming.
Favorite Tracks:
01 - Seductive Fantasy ► 05 - Stay Lifted ► 14 - Slip Stream