Breathing Under Water
[Anoushka Shankar, Karsh Kale]
(Listen to audio samples or buy from Amazon)
For those who like albums which belong to the world music/fusion music category, Breathing Under Water is a delightful musical experience. This album is produced by Anoushka Shankar and Karsh Kale and have 13 songs in total. The music is a blend of Indian music with modern sounds. Karsh Kale does the guitars, keyboards and live drums while Anoushka Shankar manages the Sitar and keyboards. On the vocals, you have the ever-amazing Sting, the versatile genius Shankar Mahadevan, Sunidhi Chauhan and Anoushka’s half sister and the Grammy winner, Norah Jones.
Instrumental collaborators include Pt. Viswa Mohan Bhatt (Mohana Veena), Salim Merchant (arranger, pianist) and the legendary Ravi Shankar (Anoushka’s father) himself on Sitar.
Confluence II
[Rahul Sharma, Richard Clayderman]
(Listen to the songs)
This is the second album in the Confluence series by Richard Clayderman and Rahul Sharma. Clayderman is on Piano while Rahul plays Santoor. I am not sure if it is because of the lighter orchestra arrangement, but Santoor and Piano do not mix well together in this album. Both instruments stand out on their own without blending well together. Apart from that, it is a nice album for easy listening and to lighten your mood.
Miles From India
[Various artists]
(Listen to audio samples or buy from Amazon)
Producer Bob Belden teams up with Louis Banks and a number of other renowned classical and Jazz musicians from India and abroad to bring this beautiful album, Miles From India. The team has reproduced popular themes from Jazz music legend Miles Davis‘ recordings and put together a blend of Jazz music with Indian music. The artists include people who have worked with Miles Davis also.
Indian musicians include, Badal Roy (Tabla), Louiz Banks, Gino Banks (Drums), Rudresh Mahanthappa (Saxophone), Ravi Chari (Sitar), Vikku Vinayakram (Ghatam), V. Selvaganesh (Khanjira), U. Shrinivas (Mandolin), Brij Narain (Sarod), Dilshad Khan (Sarangi), Sridhar Parthasarathy (Mridangam), Taufiq Qureshi & Sivamani (Percussion), Kala Ramnath (Carnatic Violin), Rakesh Chaurasia (Flute) and Shankar Mahadevan & Sikkil Gurucharan on Indian classical vocals.