Release Date: 02/10/26 - MettaSun

To encounter Jimetta Rose’s new album is to step through a spiritual portal. One moment, you’re rooted in the familiar terrain of jazz lineage and soul tradition; the next, you’re somewhere else entirely — somewhere luminous and governed by possibility. That place, as Rose imagines it, is MettaSun, a sonic and philosophical plane inspired by the cosmic teachings of Sun Ra, but fully reimagined through her own lens.

The project began years ago with a seed planted by the late DJ and producer Ras G, who once told Rose that her artistic future resembled that of June Tyson, the singular voice of Sun Ra’s Arkestra.

For the past seven years, Rose has devoted herself to collective work through Jimetta Rose & The Voices of Creation, a choir-centered project rooted in healing, joy, and communal transformation. MettaSun, however, marks a return to herself as a solo artist and a reclamation of her own authorship. It’s the sound of someone stepping forward with renewed purpose — not only as a singer-songwriter, but as a producer, arranger, architect, and world-builder.

That distinction is central to understanding the album. Rose doesn’t merely revisit Sun Ra compositions; she dismantles and rebuilds them according to the frequencies she hears in her own spirit. She approaches the material the way a hip-hop producer approaches samples: uncovering hidden melodies, layering unexpected references, and drawing new emotional contours from familiar foundations.

On “Nuclear War,” she transforms Sun Ra’s urgent classic into a meditation on vulnerability and endurance, a reflection of a world inching toward collapse while still searching for grace. Elsewhere, “Spring Time Again” drifts through the album with the warmth of a late-April afternoon, balancing the complexity of Sun Ra’s arrangements with a melodic accessibility that welcomes listeners unfamiliar with his work. In totality, MettaSun becomes a treatise on rebirth and self-permission — conversations across time meant to heal Rose as much as the listener.

Recorded live in the studio over several days, the project came together under moments of personal and logistical strain. Yet those pressures only sharpened the music’s honesty. Rather than chase perfection, Rose embraced the truth of her circumstances, allowing the imperfections to remain. What emerged is a body of work that feels immediate, intimate, and emotionally transparent.

TRACKLIST:
A side
1. Somebody Else's Idea
2. Life on Earth Phase 1
3. Nuclear War
4. Gotta Get Out Phase 2

B side
1. Sleeping Beauty
2. Portal to a New World Phase 3
3. Spring Time
4. I'll Wait For You