Out of the Blue was “Blue” Gene Tyranny’s first album: one of the first to be released on Lovely Music in 1978, and later as the first release on Unseen Worlds in 2007. Now this lovely little record has been re-mastered and re-released with original artwork and a new booklet of interviews, photographs, and lyrics.

Disarmingly direct, funky, and profound, Out of the Blue is an equanimous, wide-open exploration of Tyranny’s musical world: equal parts song cycle, tone poem, and avant-garde pop record. Recorded and mixed by Tyranny at Mills College, this album emerged following the legendary 1976 Trust in Rock concerts, where Tyranny and collaborator Peter Gordon presented their new music for rock band. “Next Time Might Be Your Time” and “For David K.” were co-produced by Gordon, and also feature Mills’s Maggi Payne on flute as well as Oingo Boingo guitarist Steve Bartek; “Leading a Double Life” is sung by Lynne Morrow and Jane Sharp, accompanied by Tyranny on piano and polyMoog synthesizer; “A Letter from Home” is a half-hour electro-acoustic narrative meditation on “the Doppler effect as a metaphor for the development of consciousness.”

Out of the Blue lives up to its name: it is both surprising and familiar, revealing for the first time something that was always already there.