Olivia with Suns of Arqa at “Un-convention”

The legendary Suns of Arqa bring their mys­tic­al and utterly com­pel­ling mix cosmic dub, spir­itu­al raga and tran­scend­ent­al global beats to Band on the Wall for a night of mind-blow­ing music.
Since the first Suns of Arqa release many turns of the sun ago, Brit­ish music has been richly embel­lished by such acts as Trans­g­lob­al Under­ground; Jah Wobble’s Invaders of the Heart; The Orb; Loop Guru and the Afro-Celt Sound System, each with their own ways of explor­ing the same cul­tur­al com­mo­tions that have so glor­i­ously dis­tin­guished Wadada’s work. All these groups owe a debt to the pion­eer­ing Suns of Arqa.
Suns of Arqa cre­at­or and mentor Michael Wadada began his col­lab­or­at­ive record­ings with Revenge of the Moz­abites in 1979 with Adrian Sher­wood, and was sub­sequently invited by Peter Gab­ri­el to per­form at the very first WOMAD Fest­iv­al. Over the years, Suns of Arqa have included musi­cians from around the globe, inter­pret­ing the vari­ous indi­gen­ous, tribal and clas­sic­al folk traditions. 

Some of the world’s most renowned tal­ents have con­trib­uted to this col­lect­ive includ­ing 808 State’s Graham Massey (single Govinda’s Dream), Finlay Quaye/Sounds From the Ground/Kopeikin/Youth/MuslimGauze (Remixes Vol. 2 & 3), John Cooper Clarke/Professor Stan­ley Unwin (album Suns of Arqa Meet The Gayan Utte­jak Orches­tra), Eric Random (album Land of a Thou­sand Churches) and Astralasia (album Total Eclipse of the Suns).
Prince Far‑I can be also be heard on A Brief His­tory of Suns Of Arqa, and Suns of Arqa Live with Prince Far‑I before his murder in 1982. In the early days Suns of Arqa appeared on the turntables of The Orb’s Alex Pat­ter­son, and Wadada later toured with The Orb, play­ing sitar on their Octo­ber 1998 tour. Releas­ing a rare style of “cereb­ral-illus­ive cos­mo­lo­gic­al vibra­tions of raga” since 1979, Cosmic Jugal­bandi, the 14th full length release, marks the 20th Anniversary Edi­tion of Arka Sound and is yet anoth­er uplift­ing col­lect­ors gem already avail­able in Europe.