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Anoushka Shankar, the acclaimed sitar player, producer and composer, has confirmed details of the third and final instalment of the trilogy of mini-albums she began with Chapter I: Forever, For Now in October 2023, and followed by the GRAMMY-nominated Chapter II: How Dark it Is Before Dawn in April 2024. Chapter III: We Return To Light will be released by LEITER on vinyl and via all digital platforms in March 2025, supported initially by an extensive tour of North America with further territories later in the year.

Three chapters, three geographies, Shankar scribbled in a diary at a café in Goa on New Years Day two years ago, manifesting an ambitious trilogy that she hoped would span multiple geographies with nods to her roots, across continents and collaborators. Looking back now, its safe to say that the 11-time GRAMMY Award nominee has outdone herself. Chapter I was recorded in Berlin acknowledging Shankars European heritage (she was born and lives in London), while Chapter II was captured in California, where she moved aged 11 and lived for over 15 years. Central to Chapter III is the mindfulness of India at the root of all her music.

Shankar studied Indian Classical music in a deeply immersive fashion from her father Ravi Shankar. She also attended the British School in New Delhi as a kid. But it was only later as a teenager when she found herself surrounded by friends from the music and fashion scene that she forged more personal connections with the people and the land. This included a fascination for Goa Trance Indias electronic music export to the rest of the world. In her twenties, Shankar escaped to the beach state to disappear from her touring and public life every New Years. She chased dance floor epiphanies in secret forest raves, participating with wild, youthful abandon, accompanied by its sibling feelings of positivity, hope, connection and joy. Think Inside Out: Millennial Goa Psy Edition.

That sets the template for Chapter III, where Shankar also holds steadfast in her desire to work with a different producer on each mini-album. Here, that responsibility falls to London-based, Indian multi-instrumentalist Sarathy Korwar, one of the most original and compelling voices in the British jazz scene. Shankar also decided that Korwar would help to ground the release and round out the symbolism around working with the albums third key collaborator, composer and sarod player Alam Khan, son of the famed Indian classical guru, Ali Akbar Khan.

Lets shift the weight of history out of the room first: Anoushka Shankar and Alam Khan belong to two of Indias most legendary theres really no other word for it musical families. Their fathers, Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan, were both renowned disciples of the legendary guru Baba Alauddin Khan (he is regarded as one of Indias greatest ever musicians). They trained side-by-side within the rigorous Maihar gharana tradition. Their electrifying, soul-stirring performances set a foundation in Indian music history, soundtracking the emergence of a fledgeling nation. Shankar and Khan established their own influential legacies, developing a unique vocabulary for their respective instruments.

Anoushka and Alam have witnessed this swirl of Indian classical and contemporary music history at close quarters. Theyve known, or at the very least, contemplated at an early age that this moment would arrive when theyd have to broach the C word (collaboration): think of it as a carefully nuanced coming-of-age musical narrative, at least in the eyes of their late fathers. Chapter III goes beyond the portraits of the spaces their fathers occupy. Its circling back to and honouring their roots without being overshadowed by them.

Daybreak, the opening song, sets the joyful tone with its repeating grooves and rhythms, for the listener to really sit in that celebration. Its the upward curve of an emotional cycle, moving into a new space where old triggers have lost their impact. Hiraeth, the first song the trio worked on together, features looping melodies and backwards sarod lines, an idea seeded by Khan and developed with Korwar and Shankar. For keen listeners, it features an Easter egg in the form of Raga Palas Kafi, created by Ravi Shankar. Similarly, Dancing on Scorched Earth sees the artists locking into each others rhythms, radiating a collective intensity built on a foundation of hypnotic simplicity. I discovered my love of a POG pedal on this track to really enjoy that lower octave crunchiness on my sitar, says Shankar.

On Chapter III, Shankar fully embraces these kinds of techniques. Looping and bending sound through technology has enabled her to add another dimension to her voice. Shankar has been pushing and reclaiming a distinctly Indo-futurist vision of the sitar. She operates outside of Western definitions of neoclassical and even further away from sub-continental norms of fusion, a dated, catch-all banner for collaborative, experimental music.

We Burn So Brightly picks up the heat from Dancing on Scorched Earth its the energy of alchemy that burns through the heat of the morning to bring about change through the act of dancing, shouting and movement. The trilogy closes with We Return to Love, based on one of Shankars favourite ragas, Manj Khamaj, played on a beautiful major scale with a twinge of nostalgia. It was made famous by Shankar and Khans fathers who famously concluded many concerts and recordings with it.

This is where the story ends, where the music returns to ancestral echoes while carving a path for modern Indian sounds, where all three artists step into a space of deep-rooted celebration. If the lasting image of Forever, For Now is the memory of that enchanting afternoon in Shankars garden, her son drowsy in her lap, We Return to Lights final frame is of someone stepping out from a forest rave into the quietude of a shoreline. The feeling is a mix of nostalgia and renewal. It echoes Shankars journey through those Goa raves where all you could do was follow a sign and a person, except its now Shankar who is signposting the listener. In We Return to Light, our feet meet the water, marking the end of a journey, a return to love, and a place of resta perfect, radiant conclusion to the trilogy.