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Artist: Anoushka Shankar
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Anoushka Shankar:

'Sister Susannah' from Love Letters P.S.

Seven-time Grammy® Award-nominated sitarist, composer and producer Anoushka Shankar announces a stunning new digital release Love Letters P.S., out on 4th June 2021 on Decca Records Group imprint Mercury KX. The new digital release follows on from the original Love Letters EP released in February 2020 and includes four new tracks: two remixes from composer-producers Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Sandunes and two brand new songs.

For Love Letters P.S., Anoushka is joined by a stellar line-up of female collaborators including singer, songwriter and pianist Norah Jones, singer, co-producer and co-writer Alev Lenz, singer and cellist Ayanna Witter-Johnson and mastering engineer Heba Kadry (Björk, Slowdive) alongside Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Sandunes. Celebrated, best-selling poet Nikita Gill contributes the spoken word poem to ‘Sister Susannah' - her first foray into music.

Anoushka Shankar:

Love Letters - EP

‘Love Letters' marks a different direction for the internationally celebrated artist; it offers a shift in intimacy and content and comes at a pivotal time in her career as she signs to her new record label, Mercury KX. Hailed by the Guardian as a "virtuoso sitar player", Anoushka truly pushes the boundaries of how the instrument is heard and perceived and "uses it as a vehicle for creativity" (Times).

Love Letters documents a time of profound flux for Anoushka: health issues, heartbreak, domestic upheaval – "These were difficult times, which pushed me into some very vulnerable places. I've written from a personal place before, of course, but there was something particularly tender about the process this time, and it was a creative challenge to be brave enough to allow the music to remain as raw as it began" she says.

Anoushka Shankar:

Land of Gold

Land of Gold, Anoushka Shankar's fourth album for Deutsche Grammophon, is her heartfelt response to the trauma and injustice experienced by refugees and victims of war. Offering an uplifting message of hope for dark times, its music was inspired by recent news images of people fleeing civil war, oppression, poverty and unbearable hardship. The album contemplates the common thread of humanity and its power to reconnect people divided by hatred and fear. "The seeds of Land of Gold originated in the context of the humanitarian plight of refugees," Anoushka recalls. "It coincided with the time when I had recently given birth to my second child. I was deeply troubled by the intense contrast between my ability to provide for my baby, and others who desperately wanted to provide the same security for their children but were unable to do so."

Land of Gold is set for international release on April 1, 2016.  Anoushka Shankar will perform pieces from the album on tour throughout the year, including festival dates in the summer in Europe and concerts in North America, the United Kingdom, continental Europe, India and the United Arab Emirates (see U.S. tour dates below).

Anoushka Shankar is joined by Hang virtuoso and co-writer of many of the album's ten pieces Manu Delago, and by Sanjeev Shankar, a master of the haunting Indian reed instrument, the shehnai, who studied with Anoushka's father Ravi Shankar. Land of Gold also includes guest appearances by rapper and refugee advocate M.I.A., singer/songwriter Alev Lenz, jazz double-bassist Larry Grenadier, dancer Akram Khan, cellist Caroline Dale, and actress and political activist Vanessa Redgrave, who reads a viscerally expressive poem by Pavana Reddy on "Remain the Sea." All-girl children's choir Girls for Equality makes its debut on the album's closing song, "Reunion."

Anoushka Shankar:

Home

After several stunning experimental/crossover albums, including the Grammy®-nominated recordings Rise, Traveller and Traces Of You, Anoushka Shankar returns to her classical roots, paying homage to the teachings of her father and guru Ravi Shankar. Home features two ragas, one of which is a creation of Ravi Shankar's, and with them Anoushka shares an intimate, heartfelt live performance in the traditional style. Indian classical music is not written down, but has been improvised and passed down through an oral tradition for centuries; Home is a paradigm of this genre, exemplifying the unique dichotomy between the ancient structure and in-the-moment improvisations. Home is self-produced by Anoushka, and on it she strove to record the ancient instruments at an unprecedented, "high-definition" quality, working with a team of experts to design a studio in her own home that would be uniquely suited to the timbre of her instrument. 

Anoushka Shankar:

Traces of You

Inspired by the loss of her legendary father, Ravi Shankar, and by the idea that everything in the universe leaves an indelible mark on everything else, Anoushka Shankar releases her first Deutsche Grammophon recording: Traces of You. The work is a juxtaposition of sorrow surrounding the loss of her father during the recording process and the joy of raising her son, Zubin. Anoushka Shankar has been nominated for three Grammy® Awards, making her the first Indian female and youngest-ever nominee in the World Music category. As a classical sitarist her professional debut was at the age of thirteen and she has championed her father's orchestral works with the world's leading orchestras. Shankar will tour the U.S. in support of the album.

Anoushka Shankar:

Breathing Under Water

From the time that the great sitar maestro Ravi Shankar attuned Western ears to the eloquence of Indian Classical music, the world has been fertile ground for creating new fusions of culture and music. The evidence is heard in music from the Beatles to Led Zeppelin, as well as that of Anoushka Shankar and Karsh Kale. East meets West with the Anoushka Shankar, Karsh Kale collaboration on Breathing Under Water. The new CD on Manhattan records includes guest tracks by Sting, and Anoushka's sister Norah Jones.

Anoushka Shankar:

Rise

Sitarist and composer Anoushka Shankar releases: Rise, her first studio recording in 5 years, and first release since 2001's Grammy-Nominated CD Live At Carnegie Hall.

TIME Asia wrote: "Anoushka Shankar has made her sitar an instrument not just of a silky melody but of a cultural revival, injecting freshness and energy into traditional Indian music, and broadening its appeal for a younger generation."