SUN ARK
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Single "Wild Blue Yonder" released on the 24th of November
‘Wild Blue Yonder’ is the first single announcing Berlin-based band Sun Ark’s upcoming self-titled album (XJAZZ!Music, February 2024).
This experimental track features alto saxophonist Asger Nissen playing an otherwordly solo over a building drone improvisation by guitarist Jojo Mann and keyboardist Povel Widestrand, grounded by bassist Thorbjörn Stefansson and drummer Marius Wankel. ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ is a six-minute excerpt of a longer improvised piece that concluded the band’s recording sessions at RecPublica Studios, (Lubza, Poland), in September 2021. Just as Nissen’s low melody leads the band into increasing ecstasy, the recording suddenly slows down – as if someone had flipped a switch on a tape machine – arriving at an ethereal, slow conclusion. Sun Ark weaves together electronic, hip- hop, Brazilian and jazz influences to create a lush, colourful and orchestral sound; a sonic story with a bright, springy opening track that bends into a red-hot, experimental arc.
Mann, Nissen, Widestrand, Stefansson, Wankel and Jäckle have played in venues around the world, from Bahia, Brazil’s Festival de Jazz do Capão to Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center, and across a number of local venues, including the Jazzexzess Concert Series, A-Trane and Donau115. In SUN ARK they join forces to improvise and experiment collectively to create a current Sound that aims to have a profound spiritual and emotional Impact. Sun Ark was recorded by Piotr Zegzula at RecPublica Studios in Lubza, Poland and Mixed & Mastered by Martin Ruch at Control Room Berlin. Additional Overdubs and Postproduction were done by Johannes Mann in his Studio in Berlin-Neukölln. The album’s retro futuristic artwork and visualizers are by Ben Luu, with trippy, mind bending videography by Ada Grueter for “Moon.Sun”.
Johannes Mann describes their self-titled debut album (Berlin’s XJAZZ Music, February 2024) as ‘exploring a landscape’; a sonic story with a bright, springy opening track that bends into a red-hot, experimental arc.
Johannes Mann