The daughter of
Ravi Shankar and young prodigy of the sitar has long been a star of the world music circuit on her own, not merely due to her virtuoso credentials, but also for her willingness to explore the possibilities of the classical sitar within other musical genres and traditions. For her seventh album,
Anoushka Shankar sets her sights on the links between Hindu and flamenco music, and -- almost logically -- turns to producer
Javier Limón, arguably the key figure in the development of flamenco fusion in the past decade. Although her sitar playing remains the focal point of the album,
Shankar is joined by superb musicians from both sides of the equation:
Sandra Carrasco,
Ramón Porrina, Álvaro Antona,
Pepe Habichuela,
Pedro Ricardo Miño, Pirashanna Thevarajah, Sanjeev Shankar, Padma Shankar, Shalini Patnaik, and Kenji Ota. Inevitably, the results are as intriguing as they are beautiful, one of the key world music releases of 2011. ~ Mariano Prunes