She is happy being her father’s daughter, but she is happier being an artiste in her own right. Anoushka Shankar trained under her iconic father Pandit Ravi Shankar and performed with him extensively. With every concert and recording, she travels deeper into the music her father bequeathed her, making an effort, at the same time, to strengthen her bond with the sitar strings. Like her father, exciting cross-cultural collaborations form a major part of her repertoire.
She works towards introducing new sounds and art forms through the sitar. “It’s fun challenging yourself every time you go up on the stage,”she says, adding, “I learnt it from my father, who was inspired by all kinds of music; the need to push creative limits.”
Anoushka comes to the city with Land of Gold , her latest album. She will perform pieces from it at a charity concert organised by Round Table 3 Ladies Circle 4. The five-time Grammy-nominated sitar player and composer returns to the Indian sub-continent (six-city tour), after performing to full houses in Europe, North America, United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates throughout 2016.
Land of Gold embraces electronics and cross-genre work, and is Anoushka’s response to the trauma of displaced people fleeing conflict and poverty. This will be the artiste’s fifth solo tour of India, which will also take her to Mumbai, New Delhi, Pune, Bangalore and Hyderabad. “It is an evocative journey infused with the message of enduring hope. Land of Gold explores the stories of the voiceless and dispossessed. The central message is the recognition of the resilience of the human spirit since everyone, in some way or other, is searching for their own land of gold.”
Deftly fusing music traditions from India with electronica, jazz, hip-hop, minimalism and more, the genre-blurring Land of Gold teams her with everyone from Björk’s musical director, Matt Robertson and Sri Lankan rap star M.I.A. to American jazz bass dynamo Larry Grenadier, Austrian percussionist genius and one of the album’s co-writers Manu Delago, dance legend Akram Khan and English actress/activist Vanessa Redgrave. Given that the majority of pieces in Land of Gold are entirely instrumental, it is — ultimately — Anoushka’s music that speaks the loudest.
Anoushka will present the album live with a skilled quartet of instrumentalists, comprising herself, hang-player and percussionist Manu Delago, Shahani exponent Sanjeev Shankar and London’s top bassist/pianist Tom Farmer.
Music, for Anoushka, is a reflection of one’s roots and values. A reason why she never fails to include India in her annual global performance tour.
Log on to www.eventjini.com or bookmyshow.com for tickets for the event to be held on December 2, 8 p.m., at Mutha Venkatasubba Rao Hall.
