Anoushka Shankar's latest album Land of Gold which she showcases at her concert at Ambedkar Bhavan tonight at 7, began to take shape when the body of Syrian infant Aylan Kurdi washed up on a Turkish beach. Through music, she reaches out to a place of universal empathy and hope.
Everyone is, in some way or another, searching for their own “Land of Gold”: a journey to a place of security, connectedness and tranquillity, which they can call home. This journey also represents the interior quest that we all take to find a sense of inner peace, truth and acceptance - a universal desire that unites humanity,” writes Anoushka Shankar, daughter of sitar legend Pandit Ravi Shankar, in her concept note about her latest album, Land of Gold.
Shankar, who is currently in India - and in Bengaluru this evening (Dec. 10) - for her Land of Gold Tour, holds the album dear for it reflects, like the ones that preceded it, a deeply personal sentiment. The idea came about when the “lifeless body of Syrian infant Aylan Kurdi washed up on a Turkish beach,” Shankar writes, “an event that shaped the album's title track.” Shankar, who had just given birth to her second child at the time, found herself drawn inexorably to this tragedy.
Aylan Kurdi, whose body washed up on the Turkish shore
“I felt overwhelmed with a sense of powerlessnessto alleviate the suffering and injustice taking place as the world looked on,” she explained. Despite being physically removed from the tragedy and its context, it was a sense of empathy that arose from being human too that truly led to the creation of Land of Gold.
Shankar describes the album as a “culmination” of her “journey to the interior.” Music was her natural outlet and it seemed a constructive one too. “I believe art can make a difference,” she writes.
The journey was an introspective one, through which she explores the many shades of human emotion - aggression, anger and tenderness, “incorporating elements of classical minimalism, jazz, electronica and Indian classical styles.”
The album, which is stripped down (she has also whittled her ensemble down to a quartet), contains influences from aroudn the world, combining jazz and electronica with Indian classical styles. The process of recording, she says, was remarkable too, for it took place outside of a “sanitized studio environment in a remote rural setting in Tuscany.”
Shankar collaborates with Manu Delago, one of the best known players of the 'hang drum'. British-Indian rapper M.I.A., whom Shankar refers to as “unapologetically hard-hitting”, makes an appearance on Jump In (Cross the Line), while veteran political activist and actress Vanessa Redgrave delivers a poignant rendering of Remain the Sea, a poem by Pavana Reddy. Alev Lenz is featured in the tital piece and the children's choir, Girls for Equality, contribute to the closing piece, Reunion.
The album features Manu on the hang drum, eminent jazz musician Larry Grenadler on double bass. Dancer Akram Khan pitched in too, by dancing with bells on his feet.
In her own words, the album’s central message is the “resilience of the human spirit and of our capacity to find the place where enduring hope resides.”
All details courtesy www.anoushkashankar.com
