The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda

These events – in the apt setting of LSO St Luke’s – draw inspiration from the spritual community Alice founded in the early 1980s. There, a multi-generational and multi ethnic community developed, and every Sunday an open service was held, inviting outsiders to join the group’s spiritual practice through song. Today the Ashram Community Singers continue that tradition here in London, performing the devotional music Alice invented alongside special guests – inspired by the gospel music of the Detroit churches she grew up in, mixed together with the Indian devotional music of her religious practice.

Originally only made available through her ashram, this music is Alice’s most obscure body of work, and possibly the greatest reflection of her soul. In 2017, it was made available to a wider audience for the first time ever, through Luaka Bop’s release of World Spirituality Classics 1: The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane.