The quality of this previously unheard session from 1986 – in terms of repertoire, performance and production – is so high that it’s hard to believe it was never intended for release.

It captures a meeting, both improbable and inevitable, between the great Sun Ra (plus 13-piece Arkestra) and bona fide rocket scientist Bill Sebastien, the inventor of the Outer Space Visual Communicator – or OVC. A fractal light projector ‘played’ with a keyboard, the OVC could be manipulated in real time to accompany performers on stage but, here, the encounter takes place in a 24-track studio.

Obviously, we can’t hear Sebastien’s visual extemporisations, but we can clearly discern Ra’s reactions, as he leans heavily on the synth to create astral washes and cosmic winds. In other ways, though, it’s a pretty conventional session, and a great summary of what a live Arkestra show would have been like in the mid-1980s: a complete absence of free-jazz turbulence in favour of tuneful favourites such as ‘El Is a Sound of Joy,’ plenty of call-and-response vocal sermons, and even saxophonist John Gilmore’s cheesy croon through the standard ‘East of the Sun.’

It’s a laid-back and slightly rambling date, but filled with enough highlights for even the most demanding Ra-ficionado.