4. Alice ColtraneTuriya Sings

What I really like about this record by Alice Coltrane is the simplicity of it. It’s just her with the harmonium and her voice. I remember the first time I listened to it, it was on the Root Strata blog when Jefre [Cantu-Ledesma] and Maxwell [August Croy] were doing that label. They shared it at the time, and I didn’t recognise her. To me, it’s as simple as a woman singing and it can be timeless – the same way as hundreds of years ago.

It’s the idea that you don’t need many tools to do something as beautiful as what she did, it’s more about a state of mind, and everyday practise – even the politics of what it is to use your voice. That, for me, really is a teaching, because sometimes I feel, especially nowadays, there is so much access to tools that you can feel overwhelmed by all the possibilities. This is just a poor recording. The quality of the sound is not extraordinary, but even the poor quality of the sound gives a grain to the voice. I love that, because then the recording is meant to be a recording: we can feel the texture, and that’s very electroacoustic.