About the album David Harrington says:

“I wanted Outer Spaceways Incorporated: Kronos Quartet & Friends meet Sun Ra to honor Sun Ra’s creative genius. I believe the music of Sun Ra belongs in the same sentence as a few other composers who have totally enlarged American music such as Charles Ives, Duke Ellington, Terry Riley and Laurie Anderson. If I could have called Ives and Ellington, I would have. As it was, the first composers I spoke to regarding Red Hot’s offer to honor Sun Ra and use his original recordings and compositions as source material, were Terry and Laurie.

“Sun Ra lived his life always centered on possible next steps he could take in music and technology. It seemed very natural to bring in some of the most thrilling forces Kronos has worked with, such as Jlin, Nicole Lizée, Zachary Watkins, Trey Spruance, Victoria Shen and Jacob Garchik.

“From the start John [Carlin] and I knew that Marshall Allen had to be a part of the record, if possible, and I’m thrilled by what he contributed to the album. John Carlin and Elia Einhorn put me in touch with Laraaji, and Steve Bernstein was a Laurie Anderson suggestion. Elia reached out to Georgia Anne Muldrow, RP Boo and Armand Hammer, as well as 700 Bliss. Pretty soon there began to emerge a sonic picture of Sun Ra’s world that felt similar to the breadth of scope I aim for in the other Kronos albums we’ve made over the years.

“I’m totally excited to have audiences hear what all of us put together, and I think not only is space the place in our world, but the future is going to be propelled cosmically, just as Sun Ra envisioned.”

Outer Spaceways Incorporated: Kronos Quartet & Friends meet Sun Ra features a diverse cast of collaborating musicians, composers, producers, emcees, including (in order of appearance): Kronos Quartet, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Jacob Garchik, Jlin, Laraaji, Marshall Allen, Laurie Anderson, Steven Bernstein, Sexmob, Doug Wieselman, Nicole Lizée, Zachary James Watkins, Corey Fogel, Raffi Garabedian, RP Boo, Armand Hammer, 700 Bliss, Trey Spruance, Secret Chiefs 3, Victoria Shen (Evicshen), Terry Riley, and Sara Miyamoto.

Select credits:

KRONOS QUARTET:
David Harrington – violin
John Sherba – violin
Hank Dutt – viola
Paul Wiancko – cello

Created by John Carlin and David Harrington

Produced by David Harrington
Co-producers: Elia Einhorn & Nikolás Mcconnie-Saad
Project Supervisor: Jonathan Galkin
Executive Producer: John Carlin

Red Hot & Ra Project Producers: John Carlin, Elia Einhorn, Jonathan Galkin

Project Consultants: Earle Sebastian, Kendall Thomas, Adrian Shankar, David Grandison Jr., Upendo Kissai

Cover Artwork by Lorna Simpson Courtesy of the Artist and Hauser & Wirth, New York with special thanks to Jennifer Hsu and James Wang from Lorna Simpson’s studio

Design by Chris Capuozzo & Char Esme

Mastered by Joe Lambert

Publishing: All Sun Ra compositions: © Enterplanetary Koncepts (BMI)

Special thanks to Irwin Chusid and the Sun Ra Estate.

Kronos Quartet / Kronos Performing Arts Association extend special thanks to Jim Newman and Jane Ivory for their support of this recording.

Thanks to: all the artists who participated; Kronos Quartet / Kronos Performing Arts Association Team: Janet Cowperthwaite, Mason Dille, Dana Dizon, Sarah Donahue, Reshena Liao; Lorna Simpon’s studio, Jennifer Hsu, Chuck Mitchell, King Britt, 3db, Renee Dossick, Amy & Conwy Phillips, Brandon Stosuy, Shaun MacDonald, Linda Brumbach, Mark Christman

Red Hot 2024