I love OM. Hearing OM is always a challenge. OM is a high intensity workout, not a wellness program. Recorded in 1965, published on Impulse only after Mr. Coltrane’s death in 1968, the session, divided over two LP sides, always provokes very divided opinions. This is not for beginners! Nat Hentoff’s liner notes read more like a manual: ‘Let the music come in without any pre-set definitions of what jazz has to be, of what music has to be.‘ Definitely not an advertisement, but respectable.

But if you get involved, it’s fantastic: You can hear Mr. Coltrane on his spiritual mission, fighting against space and time, beaming to another planet with his incredibly energetic playing combo, almost fighting an awesome battle with the means of music and sound. The reason alone for using a second bassist speaks volumes: “I want more of the sense of expansion of time. I want the time to be more plastic.“ Well, yeah!

It is best to listen to OM completely free of existing thinking and knowledge, as free as possible – after that experience nothing sounds the same as before.

Stefan Mohr