Sun Ra and Merzbow ‘Strange City’ reissued as expanded 2CD on Cold Spring
Cold Spring reissues the Sun Ra and Merzbow collaboration “Strange City” as an expanded 2CD on June 26, 2026, collecting the 2016 vinyl and CD tracks.
Cold Spring reissues “Strange City”, the collaboration between Sun Ra and Merzbow, as an expanded 2CD on June 26, 2026. The Merzbow “Strange City” reissue gathers rare and unreleased recordings from the Sun Ra archive, treated by Masami Akita, and is licensed from Irwin Chusid of the Sun Ra estate.
The Sun Ra and Merzbow ‘Strange City’ 2CD
The 2CD holds six tracks: “Livid Sun Loop” and “Granular Jazz Part 1” through “Granular Jazz Part 5”. “Granular Jazz Part 5” appears on a release for the first time, marked a “BBC 6 Exclusive”: Cold Spring states it was composed for Stuart Maconie’s “Freak Zone” on BBC Radio 6 and broadcast once, ahead of a Merzbow show at Manchester’s FAC251 in September 2016.
Cold Spring first issued the recordings about a decade ago across two sold-out editions, a CD and an LP, each carrying different music. The 2026 set collects the tracks from the original masters in the order originally intended for the vinyl. It comes in an eight-panel double digipak with an eight-page booklet featuring a new essay by Gydja, and Cold Spring orders include two stickers, one Merzbow and one Sun Ra.
About Sun Ra, Merzbow and ‘Strange City’
Sun Ra (1914-1993) was an American jazz composer, pianist and bandleader who led the Arkestra. Merzbow is the project of Japanese noise musician Masami Akita. “Strange City” pairs material from the Sun Ra archive with Akita’s noise treatments, joining jazz source recordings to Merzbow’s electronics.
Side-Line has tracked Merzbow’s recent work, including the “Sporangium” album and “Merzphysics” 10CD reissue and the Meat Beat Manifesto and Merzbow album “Extinct”, and Cold Spring previously gathered Merzbow on “Arise â A Cold Spring Sampler”. The June 26, 2026 2CD returns “Strange City” to print and brings its two original editions together for the first time.
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