Baker's Dozen

Artists discuss the 13 records that shaped their lives

10.

Alice Coltrane – Turiya Sings

I’m almost hesitant to talk about this one for fear that I can’t even come close to doing it justice. Its praises can’t be sung high enough by my words alone. This is something far beyond music to me. when I listen to it I don’t feel as if I’m listening to music, but rather I am listening further beyond the idea of music – accessing someone’s soul so directly that it seems unfair to even call it "music". It’s very difficult to explain, but it’s as if the songs are just padding surrounding the spirit. I don’t think I have ever heard a record that speaks in tongues like this one. It seems to have come from a place so deep that it transcends the physical body, to the degree where I have a really, really hard time imagining it being recorded. I can’t picture it in my mind.

As often as the analogy of floating in clouds is used to describe music with ethereal qualities, I really can’t describe it any other way. Every time I listen I float, suspended in fog that rolls over the mountaintops around my home. A truly sacred collection of sound.

Selected in other Baker’s Dozens: Lord Spikeheart, Tom Ravenscroft
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