‘Land of Gold is something we humans are striving for’

Sitar player Anoushka Shankar, who has won a Grammy nomination for her album, Land of Gold the refugee crisis, melding poetry with instrumentals, and her father’s Concerto #2

unaccompanied minor and enlisted help and support for his safe passage to the UK from Calais. This is all personal and goes beyond one album.

The album features Austrian percussionist Manu Delago, who is well-known for his work with hang drums. How was your association with him?

The sitar and hang just seem to resonate and shimmer together in a beautiful way. It’s transcendent and people seem to really get drawn into the intimate moments when those two instruments are in focus. Manu is the best exponent of that instrument and a great composer and percussionist. We’ve worked together for a few years as he featured on Traces of You and toured extensively with me. That groundwork enabled us to write very well together on Land of Gold.

Your last one, Home, had you finding your roots. It also had your critics, purists and the ones who wrote you off initially, give you a lot of appreciation for performing Hindustani classical music in all its glory. How did that feel?

That album was special to me and was made from such a pure space of wanting to play music in memory of my father that it wasn’t about the reviews. It was an experience that helped me deepen my connection with classical music for myself, and that was precious.

Tell me about the transition from Home to Land of Gold. You stepped away from your own experiences to look at that of others.

This process actually started with Traces of You, on which I included the piece, In Jyoti’s Name. After the Delhi gang rape in 2012, I had come out as a survivor of child sexual abuse and wrote that piece to express my outrage. We toured globally. It was a new experience to connect with world events through music. This may have opened the door in the summer of 2015, when I was feeling horrified at what our world was, and still is. I wanted to express that feeling in my music and try to join my voice with those of others who feel the same way.

Besides the tour, what is it that you are currently working on?

I’m excited to be taking on a couple of composition projects in 2017, beyond my own albums. I’ve wanted to score for film, dance and theatre for some time and am happy to be growing towards that now. I’m also continuing to champion my father’s compositions with some truly great performances of his Concerto #2 coming up in the next few months with the LA Philharmonic and Berlin Philharmonic.

Anoushka Shankar will perform at Siri Fort auditorium , Delhi, on December 9