For the first time, this album is released as the unbroken improvisation it was when performed "live," instead of being broken into two parts as it was when released on vinyl due to side-length considerations.
Featuring violinist Leroy Jenkins, bassist Sirone, and percussionist Jerome Cooper, this group was an early example of chamber music within the avant-garde format, one that emphasized subtlety within its instrumentation (string instruments instead of saxophones) and compositions. The band existed primarily from 1971-1977, building a worldwide reputation as one of the premier avant-garde groups. "Vietnam" was the group's first recording.
After a precision liftoff in Tabasco and setting a course to travel the space ways from planet to planet, the album peels away through a wormhole just past Saturn in the eponymous track Mayan Space Station to journey through time and space in Canyons of Light. eric F