Jazz
Jazz Fusion
Free Improvisation
Avant-garde Jazz
Track, rate, and sort your album collection.
Keith Jarrett’s intimate 1986 double album, Spirits, is an uncanny, raw, and deeply ritualistic departure from his signature acoustic solo piano, recorded entirely by Jarrett alone in his home studio using a multi-track cassette recorder. Stripping away all concert-hall gloss, the soundscape is dominated by a primitive, earthbound palette: hypnotic, overlapping flutes (recorders, Pakistani flutes, and bamboo flutes), earthy hand percussion, rhythmic acoustic guitar strums, and subtle, drone-like piano and soprano saxophone accents. The production carries an austere, tape-saturated lo-fi warmth, full of breathy transients, close-miked room resonance, and physical intimacy. Eschewing complex jazz harmony for chant-like, modal folk melodies and repetitive tribal grooves, the music feels less like a polished studio release and more like an unvarnished, solitary sacred ceremony—solitary, haunting, and infused with a meditative, primal energy.