COLTRANE, ALICE - Translinear Light
"Japanese version, regular jewel box packaging (please note, this is also out in the US on Impulse!). Japanese version features one exclusive track not found on the US version: "Part 1: Acknowledgement"(as written by John Coltrane, for the first section of Love Supreme). With Charlie Haden, Jack DeJohnette and Ravi Coltrane. "Translinear Light is Alice Coltrane's first recording in 26 years, since she withdrew from active performing and recording in the late '70s to open an ashram and devote herself primarily to spiritual pursuits. The astonishing fact of Translinear Light is that Alice Coltrane's artistry is as fresh, complete, and compelling as in any of her celebrated works of thirty years ago or more. Her rigorously inventive approach to the music overflows with richly harmonized, exquisitely embellished ideas. Playing acoustic piano on tracks like her own 'Translinear Light' and John Coltrane's 'Crescent' she shows all the dexterous and imaginative powers at her command, from shimmering arpeggios to powerful thrusting chords. She authoritatively exploits all of the instrument's tonal and harmonic possibilities from the rumbling bass to the tinkling top wind chime notes. Though she doesn't play the harp on this recording, she often makes the piano sound like a harp. In her idiosyncratic voicings on the Wurlitzer organ, the profound influence of Indian and Eastern music can be heard, with bent notes and a raga-like approach to improvisation, as on her arrangement of the traditional Hindu hymn 'Sita Ram' which opens the album. For Alice Coltrane, it is clear that all music is devotional music. Translinear Light is a logical extension of the spiritual and musical path that John and Alice Coltrane began together. It is radiant, cosmic, psycho-active music, which, despite its depth and complexity, has a timeless and universal appeal. This is one for the history books."- Universal.