Selected episodes from Alice Coltrane’s extraordinary devotional television series Eternity’s Pillar, newly released on Blu-ray by Exotic Material.

In 1985, KTTV Channel 11, an independent commercial television station in Los Angeles, began broadcasting Eternity’s Pillar every Sunday after midnight. Across the series, Alice Coltrane, appearing as Swamini Turiyasangitananda, presented devotional wisdom, meditation and music in an ecumenical context.

The programmes bring together solo performances on piano, harp, organ and OB-8 synthesizer, music composed from scripture, readings from Coltrane’s Endless Wisdom, chanting with members of the Vedantic Center, dance, meditation and vivid 1980s video effects. Created, directed, written and scored by Coltrane herself, the series offers a remarkable window onto her musical and spiritual life during a period in which she had largely withdrawn from the commercial music world.

Broadcast between 1985 and 1988, Eternity’s Pillar remained little seen outside Los Angeles. Seventeen surviving episodes have now been digitised from original U-matic broadcast master tapes held by the Coltrane archive and presented together for the first time in a limited-edition Blu-ray release from Exotic Material.

For this special release event, Cafe OTO presents a selection of restored episodes from the newly released edition, celebrating one of the most extraordinary and under-seen chapters in Alice Coltrane’s life and work.

Further programme details will be announced shortly.