Coup de coeur: Alice Coltrane brings light into the darkness

With his Blackout Sessions, Atelier 210 brings the ultimate listening experience: you alone with an album in the dark. No one better than Alice Coltranes to turn that into a spiritual trip.

In an interview in Select magazine, Brussels-based artist Laryssa Kim spoke to us about her love for “deep listening”: “The idea of really immersing yourself in the music, and doing nothing else but listening. I think it’s something very powerful.” For Kim, this way of listening is nothing less than a spiritual experience. At Atelier 210, they have known this for years. On a regular basis, they organise Blackout Sessions, where you submit yourself to (historically significant) music albums. In complete darkness. Without any phones tinkling, glasses rattling, or hullaballoo by all too talkative concertgoers. Isn’t that just amazing?

There is no record better to make you see the light during a Blackout Session than Journey in Satchidananda by American pianist and harpist Alice Coltrane. The title of this 1971 record, for which the legendary harpist and composer summoned double bassist Charlie Haden and saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, refers to the Indian guru Satchidananda Saraswati, who became a friend of Alice Coltrane after the death of her husband John. The latter gets a beautiful tribute with “Something about John Coltrane”, on which the tanpura, a buzzing string instrument from India, triggers transcendence. Journey in Satchidananda is a beacon in spiritual jazz. 37 minutes and six seconds of pure mystical listening pleasure, soul-expanding music making you a new person at every listen. I have already invited Laryssa Kim to join me on that spiritual journey.