Bringing together two EPs of hushed, late-night atmospherics.
Intense, dreamlike songs influenced by folk and minimalism, and informed by feminism, ecology and posthuman communication, deploying magnetic tapes, field recordings, and bits from the speech of contemporary thinkers, besides harmonium, organ, violin and cello, toy and electric guitar, and a small choir.
‘Texts and numerous interviews pay tribute to a truly extraordinary figure in 20th-century American jazz. This volume unpacks the cultural legacy of musician, spiritual leader, wife and mother Alice Coltrane. Accompanying the eponymous exhibition at Los Angeles’ Hammer Museum (running till May 4), the book takes its title from Coltrane’s 1977 autobiography and devotional text, Monument Eternal, in which she reflected on her newfound spiritual beliefs and the path to healing and self-discovery. Coltrane was ‘ahead of her time,’ as her son, saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, says: she was ‘one of the first people to move outside the mainstream, and certainly one of the first female, Black, American jazz musicians to record her own music in her own studio, and to release music on her own terms.’ Alice Coltrane, Monument Eternal explores themes including spiritual transcendence, sonic innovation and architectural intimacy. The project juxtaposes works from nineteen contemporary American artists with pieces of ephemera from Coltrane’s archive — including handwritten sheet music, unreleased audio recordings and rarely seen footage — to honor her cultural output and practice.’
Cloth hardcover with debossing. 12.6” x 9.8”. 192 pages.
A dazzling mixture of stone classics and gems buried deep in the Sukisa catalogue. Excellent booklet.
‘While exploring the Hawaiian guitar with its clear, airy, plangent, psychedelic effluvia, he continues to replicate the piano comping technique, and adds two missing strings to his bow: a simulation of the sanza (likembé or thumb piano), whose sounds he reproduces right down to the noisemakers of the tiny tin rings, on the one hand, and the sounds of the Luba balafon on the other… Docteur Nico is a genius of our time, whose style makes him the supreme exponent of the most important guitar school in Congolese music. He is recognized by his peers as the greatest African solo guitarist of all time.’