Cold Spring has announced the upcoming release of a 10th anniversary expanded double-CD reissue of Strange City, the collaborative project combining the work of the late Afrofuturist composer Sun Ra and Japanese noise artist Merzbow (Masami Akita). The reissue is scheduled for release on June 26, 2026.
Officially licensed from Irwin Chusid, who manages the catalog of Sun Ra, the project features rare and unreleased archival recordings of Sun Ra that were remixed and processed by Masami Akita. The recordings merge Sun Ra’s experimental jazz structures with Akita’s signature harsh noise style, specifically incorporating elements of Sun Ra’s Strange Strings and The Magic City.
Originally released a decade ago, the initial pressing of Strange City was distributed across vinyl and CD formats, with each format containing different tracks due to space and sound quality limitations. This new reissue collects all tracks together on a single release for the first time, sourced from the original master tapes and presented in the artists’ originally intended track sequence.
The upcoming double-CD edition will also include “Granular Jazz Part 5,” a previously unreleased two-minute track. This piece was originally composed for Stuart Maconie’s Freak Zone on BBC 6 Music ahead of Merzbow’s live performance at Manchester’s FAC251 venue in September 2016.
The physical release will be packaged in an eight-panel double digipak, featuring expanded artwork and a booklet with a new essay by Gydja. The original Sun Ra recordings were remastered by Michael D. Anderson and Irwin Chusid, while the final release was mastered by Martin Bowes at The Cage.
