Man, the Algorithm threw up a good one this week. I am grateful to have finally been introduced to Kirtan: Turiya Sings one of Alice Coltrane’s recordings from the 80s that were only available through her ashram in Agoura Hills. Kirtan is a sanskrit word with multiple meanings. Aside from praise, the definition that I think is most appropriate to the music contained here is “to cut through,” as in: to cut through the things that separate us from the All. This music is so simple but so monumental that it cuts through the clutter and mind-numbing noise that bombards the soul on a daily basis.
Turiya is the spiritual name that Alice Coltrane took for herself and these recordings are her first vocal performances on record. And what a voice it is. She was older at this point and who knows how much badness had crossed her path by then. Her voice is not the sound of a woman trudging up a hill with a great burden on her back. It is the sound of the wind that pushes her forward through all of her struggles. It is the sound that eases the burden. It seems a shame that her singing isn’t commented on more. These are all chants and the fact that I understand none of the lyrics only seems to make the effect more raw. I do not know what these words mean, but they speak to me all the same. Language
Charanam is my first favorite track from my listening so far. The entire album is just Alice and her Wurlitzer, both heaving and pumping away as though a full orchestra, complete with dual choirs, were behind them. There is nothing complicated here. It is just two voices, calling and responding to one another, and the spaces between each phrase are vast and rife with emotion. I can’t describe what you will hear but you will hear it when you hear it. I hear lines—bass lines, drum riffs, skanky guitar, from Motown to Mumbai, every mode of every culture is represented and all of them fit into this setting without being verbalized. Whatever your life experiences are that lead you to this music will be reflected back at you from out of the blank spaces Alice and her organ.