Interstellar Space is a studio album by the American jazz saxophonist John Coltrane, featuring the drummer Rashied Ali.

Interstellar Space consists of an extended duet suite in four parts with the drummer Rashied Ali,[2] and was recorded at the Van Gelder Studio on February 22, 1967,[2] one week after the session that produced Stellar Regions (which included the track "Offering",[4] also featured on the album Expression), and roughly two weeks before the session that produced the tracks "Ogunde" and "Number One", both of which also appeared on Expression.

According to Ben Ratliff, Interstellar Space was "minimally planned",[9] and "happened on what seemed for Ali to be a routine visit to Rudy Van Gelder's studio.

[20] 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.

"[21] 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.

[13] 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.

[22] According to Down Beat magazine, Interstellar Space best exemplified the formal principles Coltrane applied to his more spiritual music,[14] 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: In Ali he found a drummer even more willing to abandon terrestrial rhythmic boundaries and set course for uncharted space.

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.

"[11] Eric Nisenson wrote that the title Interstellar Space "is perfectly fitting, for here Coltrane is free to improvise without the gravity of the bass or piano.

The names of the pieces, 'Mars,' 'Jupiter,' 'Venus,' and 'Saturn,' reflect Coltrane's interest in astrology, which he valued as a complex system for relating the flow of the cosmos to human actions.

"[24] Lewis Porter's book John Coltrane: His Life and Music includes a detailed discussion of Interstellar Space, and specifically "Venus.

"[30] 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"[31] Author Tony Whyton wrote that the tracks on Interstellar Space "clearly demonstrate the full glory of Coltrane’s late style"[32] 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.

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.

[8] In 1999, guitarist Nels Cline and drummer Gregg Bendian released their versions of "Mars", "Leo", "Venus", "Jupiter" and "Saturn" on the album Interstellar Space Revisited: The Music of John Coltrane.