Philip Cohran & The Artistic Heritage Ensemble

Kelan Phil Cohran's ('Kelan' is an honorific meaning 'holy scripture' bestowed on him by Chinese Muslims during a visit to China) Meditation was recorded at Atiba Johnson's Chicago studio in 1996, but has circulated only privately until now, with its long-awaited official release on Katalyst. And in waiting for it to arrive, we have perhaps been given what we need to appreciate it as it unfolds. The two players on the session are Kelan Phil Cohran (harp, frankiphone, cornet, zither) and Malik Cohran (keyboards, bass, guitar), and they begin the single piece in definition: Malik's synthesizer washes ebb and flow and spread into a ghost chorus that creates an abyss, an infinite; only then does Kelan enter with runs of picked zither, fast and delicate but sure, weaving into that eternal the sound of the human. In time, a muted cornet drone reaches through the expanding gong shimmer, piercing the space like a homing signal. The keyboards whoosh and coalesce into a concentric throb, in moments pushing toward a distinctly contemporary distortion, while the cornet crusades and flares in a reach for the divine.