Anoushka Shankar Announces Final Chapter Of Album Trilogy Series With New Single “Hiraeth”
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11x Grammy-Nominated Sitarist And Composer’s New Experimental Album ‘Chapter Iii: We Return To Light’ Out March 14 On Leiter
North American Tour Kicks Off In March With Performances At Big Ears Festival + Stops In Los Angeles, New York And More
PRE-ORDER/PRE-SAVE ‘CHAPTER III: WE RETURN TO LIGHT’
Friday, January 17th, 2025 – Anoushka Shankar, the acclaimed sitarist, producer, composer, and now 11X GRAMMY-nominated artist, today announces the third and final installment of the trilogy of mini-albums she began in 2023 honoring the ever-shifting nature of her experience on earth through, each seeking to capture singular, fleeting moments in time with an act of trust: choosing new collaborators and walking into the recording studio with no more than an initial creative impulse. Chapter III: We Return To Light will be released on Nils Frahm’s LEITER label on March 14, and today’s announcement is accompanied by the Goa trance-influenced track “Hiraeth,” the first song she composed for the project.
Listen to “Hiraeth” here: https://ltr.lnk.to/Hiraeth
“Three chapters, three geographies,” Shankar scribbled in a diary at a café in Goa on New Year’s Day two years ago, manifesting the ambitious trilogy with nods to her roots, across continents and collaborators. Where Ch I: Forever, For Now – produced by Arooj Aftab and featuring Nils Frahm – conjures the immense stillness and beauty of a sun-kissed garden, the Peter Raeburn-produced Ch. II: How Dark It Is Before Dawn veiled the garden over, giving rise to the womblike power of darkness. The second chapter is up for Best New Age, Ambient or Chant Album at this year’s GRAMMYs, and her featured role on Jacob Collier’s song “A Rock Somewhere” is up for the Best Global Performance, marking Shankar’s 10th and 11th nominations.
Watch an impassioned live performance from the two recently in Amsterdam here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgVRqM_PT5k
Central to Ch. III is the mindfulness of India at the root of all her music. For the record, she joined with London-based, Indian multi-instrumentalist Sarathy Korwar, a leading voice in the British jazz scene along with composer and sarod player Alam Khan, son of the famed Indian classical guru, Ali Akbar Khan. Together, the three tap into Shankar’s fascination with Goa Trance – India’s electronic music export - which began in her twenties, when she escaped to the beach state and chased dance floor epiphanies in secret forest raves, participating with wild, youthful abandon.
“Hiraeth,” the first song the trio worked on together, features looping melodies and backward sarod lines, an idea seeded by Khan and developed with Korwar and Shankar. For close listeners, it features an Easter egg in the form of the popular Hindu classical, Raga Palas Kafi, created by Ravi Shankar. Similarly, “Dancing on Scorched Earth” sees the artists locking into each other’s rhythms, radiating a collective intensity built on a foundation of hypnotic simplicity. “I discovered my love of a POG pedal on this track to really enjoy that lower octave crunchiness on my sitar,” says Shankar.
On Ch. III, Shankar fully embraces a looping and bending sound technique, adding a further dimension to her voice and bringing her music outside of Western definitions of “neoclassical” and even further away from sub-continental norms of “fusion,” a dated, catch-all banner for collaborative, experimental music.
The trilogy closes with “We Return to Love,” based on one of Shankar’s favorite ragas, “Manj Khamaj,” played on a beautiful major scale with a twinge of nostalgia. It’s an apt conclusion as the recording was made famous by Shankar and Khan’s fathers who famously concluded many concerts and recordings with it.
This is where the story ends, where the music returns to ancestral echoes while carving a path for modern Indian sounds, where all three artists step into a space of deep-rooted celebration. Ch. III’s final frame is of someone stepping out from a forest rave into the quietude of a shoreline. The feeling is a mix of nostalgia and renewal. It echoes Shankar’s journey through those Goa raves where all she could do was follow a sign and a person, except it’s now Shankar who is signposting the listener. With Chapter III: We Return to Light, feet meet the water, marking the end of a journey, a return to love, and a place of rest—a perfect, radiant conclusion to the trilogy.
Following the album release Shankar will perform at Big Ears festival in Knoxville and begin a headlining tour with stops in Los Angeles, Houston, Toronto, New York City, and more. See below for a full list of tour dates and stay tuned for more to come from Anoushka Shankar.
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Photo Credit: Carly Hildebrant |
PRE-ORDER/PRE-SAVE ‘CHAPTER III: WE RETURN TO LIGHT’
‘Chapter III: We Return To Light’ Tracklist:
- Daybreak
- Hiraeth
- Dancing On Scorched Earth
- We Burn So Brightly
- Amrita
- We Return To Love
Anoushka Shankar 2025 Tour Dates:
March 13 - The Moore Theatre, Seattle
March 14 - Bing Concert Hall, Stanford
March 15 - Fonda Theatre, Los Angeles
March 16 - Epstein Family Amphitheater, San Diego
March 18 - Eisemann Center, Richardson
March 19 - Cullen Theater, Houston
March 20 - Hodgson Concert Hall, Athens
March 22 - Auburn University, Auburn (Alabama)
March 23 - Ruby Diamond Concert Hall, Tallahassee
March 25 - Massey Hall, Toronto (Canada)
March 28 - Town Hall, New York
March 30 - Big Ears - Tennessee Theater, Knoxville
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