Melding Indian raga with other world music influences and electronica beats, the sitar master ANOUSHKA SHANKAR‘s sound is full of “shimmering textures seem to offer a hotline to the divine,” (The Australian) honoring tradition while boldly embracing the future. The daughter of the late Ravi Shankar and half sister of Norah Jones, her latest project, LAND OF GOLD, veers sonically away from her classical side and takes as its subject matter the global refugee crisis. The record evokes, in Shankar’s own words, “themes of disconnection, vulnerability and the underlying hope that persists in our darkest experiences.”
The indie experimentalist Shara Nova, a singer and composer recognized for her choral compositions and the baroque chamber opera You Us We All, has recorded as a guest vocalist with David Byrne, Laurie Anderson, The Decemberists, and Sufjan Stevens among others. Fronting her band MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND, she makes music that “feels simultaneously micro-orchestrated and entirely, ecstatically spontaneous;” (NPR) she brings a brand new lineup of that band to the Bandshell in advance of a new record out this fall.