It’s hard to put one’s finger on exactly what makes the Arkestra sound so ineffably cosmic. This new collection of instrumentals eschews fiery free-jazz blow-outs and interplanetary chants, yet its mellow, diaphanous vibe effortlessly evokes an eternity drifting weightless in the stars.

It opens with a trio of gently lilting vamps with massed horns providing warm, steady surges, which the Arkestra’s indefatigable figurehead, 98-year old Marshall Allen, disrupts with serrated clusters of jagged alto sax. On ‘Day Of The Living Sky’ he switches to West African kora, adding delicate plucks and strums over clopping hand percussion and lilting flutes.

Best of the three, though, is the first ever instrumental rendering of ‘Somebody Else’s Idea,’ a Sun Ra classic first recorded in 1955, here imbued with grand, mythic resonance. New composition ‘Marshall’s Groove’ is a slow, crawling blues that gradually gathers mass, but it’s in the final two cuts, both tender, sentimental ballads, that the album finds its true voice – particularly in a gorgeously wistful take on the old Disney tear-jerker, ‘Wish Upon A Star,’ another enduring staple from the Ra songbook. Commissioned by veteran producer, Ahmet Uluğ, to produce an album that’s “accessible and healing in the Covid era,” the Arkestra have delivered beautifully.