SAVED! by Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter

For pentecostals, a religious sect with a sizable presence in the American South, it’s not enough to know that God exists; God must be experienced. In her exploration of pentecostal traditions, Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter, the artist formerly known as Lingua Ignotia, released SAVED!, an epoch-defining experiment in spiritual music. The work hinges on the miracle of speaking in tongues, a gift that pentecostals believe turns Christians into direct mouthpieces for the word of God. We hear Hayter speak in tongues several times on the record, most notably with the indescribable, transcendent performance at the end of the album; she coughs, sobs, and retches, her body gasping for air under the weight of its role as a conduit for divinity. Hayter remains in a constant state of prayer throughout the album, begging for purification in preparation for judgment day. In our humanist era, witnessing someone prostrate themselves so completely before God inspires emotions that many of us have never felt before. SAVED! By Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter will go down in history as one of the great religious testaments of our time.

- Michael