Interstellar Space was released in September 1974 by
Impulse! Records. In a contemporary review for
Rolling Stone, music journalist
Stephen Davis called the album "plainly astounding" and found Ali to be the ideal complement for Coltrane's mystical ideas: "He outlandishly returns the unrelenting outpour of energy spewing from Trane, and the result is a two-man vulcanism in which Ali provides the subterranean rumblings through which the tenor explodes in showers of notes."
Robert Christgau wrote in his column for
The Village Voice that he was amazed by the duets, which "sound like an annoyance until you concentrate on them, at which point the interactions take on pace and shape, with metaphorical overtones that have little to do with the musical ideas being explored." In a review of
Interstellar Spaces expanded CD reissue, jazz critic
Scott Yanow from
AllMusic deemed it "rousing if somewhat inaccessible music" with transformative, emotional duets that showcase Coltrane's flair for improvising without a traditional
jazz accompaniment.
Tiny Mix Tapes wrote that the "fierce free-jazz rumination" is not as important as his other albums
Giant Steps (1960) and
A Love Supreme (1965), but it better encapsulates Coltrane's spiritual and stylistic growth, including his understanding and grasp of
multiphonic techniques,
overtone sounds, and
altissimo notes. According to
Down Beat magazine,
Interstellar Space best exemplified the
formal principles Coltrane applied to his more spiritual music, while Derek Taylor from
All About Jazz called it one of his most important recordings, distinct from previous duets he recorded with the likes of
Elvin Jones:
Ben Ratliff described the album as follows: "Coltrane directs the music, beginning and ending at a place of calm, even though the music reaches frenetic states in between. It isn't show business, even hippie show business. It's an almost monastic record. Each piece begins and ends with bells, shaken by Coltrane. The pieces encompass a range of expression, from hard, fragmentary phrases to flowing, downward twelve-note scales, played so fast and articulated so clearly they give you the physical sensation of the floor dropping out from under you. This takes him back to 1958, when he started to become interested in the harp, expressing himself with fast arpeggios; it is sheets-of-sound done even better."
Lewis Porter's book
John Coltrane: His Life and Music includes a detailed discussion of
Interstellar Space, and specifically "Venus." He wrote: "The barrage of sound presented by Coltrane's last works may, unfortunately, conceal from many listeners the magnificent power of Coltrane's playing. What seems to be chaotic is just the opposite. Coltrane managed to create long solos that flowed seamlessly from theme to improvisation - which is just what he said he wanted. And the improvisations were devoted relentlessly to the exploration of abstract motivic ideas." Porter suggested that
Interstellar Space is "an ideal starting place for the listener who wants to understand Coltrane's last music - it's so easy to hear what he's doing... Each [piece] begins with a theme, moves away from it, and returns to it at the end... all of the pieces encompass some kind of working up to a climax followed by a calming down, which leads to a recapitulation." He goes on to list three techniques that Coltrane employs in this recording: 1) "very fast descending scales, repeated over and over" in an attempt "to create an orchestral effect... He wants to give the listener an impression that the top notes are the melody, and the scales are the accompaniment;" 2) "rapid and extreme changes in register," an "attempt to suggest two lines of activity at once;" Porter notes that as "Coltrane moves into longer and faster streams of notes, more abstruse and less clearly articulated," "patterns emerge" and "we begin to realize that what, at first hearing, may have seemed to be an undisciplined proliferation of notes is actually an elaboration of various patterns." Porter concludes his discussion of "Venus" by noting: "For someone who was accused of playing loud, noisy music during his last years, what impresses most is his incredible control of dynamics, from a whisper to a holler... And Coltrane has succeeded precisely
because he gave up chord changes and the restriction of a steady beat, in creating a seamless musical construction, not divisible into choruses." Author Tony Whyton wrote that the tracks on
Interstellar Space "clearly demonstrate the full glory of Coltrane’s late style" and notes that "the removal of identifiable structures, a steady pulse, and clear sense of meter opens up the music and removes familiar aids of orientation for the listener. In this respect, although Coltrane's sound and approach can be understood as part of the same continuum, the context has changed dramatically to the point where the music is clearly experienced more as an immediate sensation. This leads to recordings such as
Interstellar Space being received as musical processes rather than as products; they encourage us to listen in the here and now as opposed to assimilating what has happened before and predicting what will happen next." Whyton suggests that "Experiencing a recording as a type of music as process counters the canonical imperative of reifying music; Coltrane's music does not convey a singular meaning or set of values but works as an agent for questioning and opening up the discourse about what music could be. In Coltrane's world at this time, the studio becomes a site for investigation and discovery, and the duets with Ali convey a clear sense of experimentation and interplay between two creative artists." He also states: "there is a definite sense that notation alone cannot capture the intensity, energy, and sound encountered when listening to the recording firsthand.... As a sonic experience,
Interstellar Space has a rich, sensual quality that clearly explains Coltrane's fascination with sound. More than any other late Coltrane recording,
Interstellar Space draws the listener in with its sensuous sounds and demonstrates the way in which recordings can open our ears to different listening experiences." Zach Graham, writing for
GQ, called it "Coltrane's most tenacious and inaccessible album" and claimed it was Coltrane's most influential record citing
Thundercat and
Kendrick Lamar as musicians influenced by
Interstellar Space. ==Covers==