Transcendence

Alice Coltrane’s last studio album before withdrawing from the music industry and public life for the next thirty years, 1977’s Transcendence might be misconstrued as an artist putting their house in order. She would soon turn her back on the material realm for spiritual service (including the founding of her own ashram), but this album offers us an exquisite glimpse of the sublime on the way out. One side presages the sound of “the ashram tapes” she would record for personal use in the 1980s, her Wurlitzer organ accompaniment for a set of Hindu religious chants (bhajans) suggesting a Pangaea where ancient Indian spirituality and the ecstatic African-American gospel tradition meet. “Radhe-Shyam” and the title track feature a string quartet melded to her harp glissandos. And “Vrindavana Sanchara” is a solo piece wherein Coltrane layers harp, tamboura, and chimes to beatific effect.