New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Today, award-winning artist Anoushka Shankar releases a brand-new music video to accompany 'Those Words', a track from her critically-acclaimed EP 'Love Letters', which will be released as a special edition vinyl to mark Record Store Day 2020 on 29th August.
Anoushka will be performing at the BBC Proms live from the Royal Albert Hall with electronic artist Gold Panda, percussionist Manu Delago, conductor Jules Buckley and the Britten Sinfonia on Friday 4th September. Audiences can listen live to 'New Explorations' on BBC
Radio 3 and watch on BBC Four, and catch up on BBC
Sounds and BBC iPlayer.
Directed by and starring Anoushka, the video features cellist and composer
Ayanna Witter-Johnson, renowned Indian singer Shilpa Rao and dancers Guro Nagelhus Schia and Vebjørn Sundby, all of whom recorded the footage on their smart phones from London, Mumbai and Norway. The visuals come alive to a backdrop of vibrant colours from around the world and flowers in full summer bloom. Guro and Vebjørn sway through a beautifully intimate routine, complimenting the trio's performance.
Speaking of the track, Anoushka says, "Ayanna came over with an open heart, a secret recipe and the seed of a new melody, which I tended and helped grow. We wrote a poem about memories, loss, and nostalgic words. Shirin Anandita took our original poem and helped it evolve into beautiful Punjabi lyrics of her own. Finally, Shilpa Rao shared her gorgeous voice with us to bring those lyrics to life."
To mark Record Store Day 2020, Anoushka will be releasing 'Love Letters' as a 12" vinyl. Marking 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 signed to her new record label, Mercury KX, earlier this year. Hailed by the Guardian as a "virtuoso sitar player", Anoushka truly pushes the boundaries of how the instrument is 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, but this time there was something particularly tender about the process. It was a creative challenge to be brave enough to allow the music to remain as raw as it began" she says.
A host of trail-blazing women feature on 'Love Letters', including singer and co-producer Alev Lenz, twin sister vocal duo Ibeyi, singer and cellist
Ayanna Witter-Johnson, renowned Indian singer Shilpa Rao, Brooklyn-based mastering engineer Heba Kadry (Björk, Slowdive) and British audio mastering engineer Mandy Parnell (Aphex Twin, The XX).
A singular figure in the progressive world music scene, Anoushka's dynamic and spiritual musicality has garnered several prestigious accolades, including six Grammy® Award nominations, recognition as the youngest - and first female - recipient of a British House of Commons Shield, and a Songlines Best Artist Award.
Besides performing as a solo sitarist, Anoushka's compositional work has led to cross-cultural collaborations with artists such as Sting, M.I.A, Herbie Hancock, Rodrigo y Gabriela and Joshua Bell, as well as with his Holiness the Dalai Lama on the Inner World album and the new Soundwalk
Collective album with Patti Smith; all of which demonstrate the versatility of the sitar across all musical genres. Anoushka has also begun to compose for film, scoring the silent 1928 film Shiraz for the British Film
Institute and A Suitable Boy soundtrack for BBC1.
Anoushka Shankar's 'Love Letters' is out on special edition vinyl for Record Store Day on 29th August. She performs 'New Explorations' at the BBC Proms on 4th September.
