![]() ![]() Harrison and Shankar joined forces in both India and England to set music to ancient Sanskrit chants. We then jump to 1997, for Chants of India. Two bonus features are included: a short documentary about the remixing process, and a bonus audio-only track. The film is presented in both stereo and 5.1 surround mixed by Ravi and daughter Anoushka Shankar. ![]() Shankar’s troupe embarked on a tour to promote the LP, and the performance of Music Festival from India from London’s Royal Albert Hall premieres on DVD here after a painstaking restoration process. ![]() Much of the music is joyful, such as “Naderdani,” described as “a contemporary composition for voice and instruments.” Other tracks are adapted from traditional Indian folk melodies and rhythms. The album’s sounds are exotic, but immediately transporting. Two years later, Harrison invited Shankar and 17 Indian classical musicians to London where they recorded Ravi Shankar’s Music Festival from India over a five-week period. The flipside is the instrumental score to an unproduced ballet, and the music is appropriately varied in tone and instrumentation over three movements entitled “Dream,” “Nightmare” and “Dawn.” Western instruments such as saxophone, bass and guitar augment the traditional Indian sound to create unusual, evocative mood pieces with a definite, hypnotic groove. This rare English-language song shows off Shankar’s gift for melody. The album gets off to a wonderful start with “I Am Missing You,” as sung by Lakshmi Shankar. Harrison enlisted many of his famous friends to contribute musically, and thus Ringo Starr, Klaus Voormann, Billy Preston, Jim Keltner and Tom Scott are all heard performing on songs composed by Shankar and produced by Harrison. The concept was simple: to unite Western and Indian musicians on two vinyl sides, one of songs and the other of instrumentals. ![]() Although the discs are numbered in reverse chronological order, the earliest of the CDs contained is 1974’s Shankar Family and Friends. This album is also the most commercial of the group. This new collection contains three CDs and one DVD spanning the period between 19. Hit the jump to explore these landmark Collaborations! There’s nothing here to satisfy those listeners looking for the blistering rock of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” or even the spiritual pop of “My Sweet Lord.” But for adventurous listeners, Collaborations draws a direct line from the Beatles’ much-recounted Indian adventures in 1968 to the themes explored in Harrison’s All Things Must Pass (itself being reissued this fall in a vinyl edition and high resolution download) and beyond. For the open-minded, however, Collaborations (Dark Horse/Rhino R2 525469) is a handsome (and heavy – in both senses of the word!) set restoring to catalogue some of Shankar’s more accessible works, as produced by Harrison. Given Harrison’s modesty and the spiritual nature of the music contained, though, perhaps the “quiet” release is fitting. While it’s arrived somewhat under the radar compared to higher-profile sets from the McCartney and Lennon camps, the music found on George Harrison’s collection of Collaborations with Ravi Shankar will sound far more radical to the average western ear than anything on Plastic Ono Band or Liverpool Sound Collage. Exhibit “A” might be the new box set released by Dark Horse and Rhino just in time for the gift-giving season. George Harrison…the Radical Beatle? While you’re unlikely to find that description in many Beatles reference books, it’s not all that far-fetched a description. Ravi Shankar and George Harrison, “Collaborations” ![]()
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