Chapter I: Forever, For Now

Anoushka Shankar’s last significant release, Love Letters, released in 2020 on Mercury Classics, was a very personal collection of songs written after the break-up of her marriage. This new one is completely instrumental and definitely shifts the focus back to her sitar playing. Shankar recently played on Arooj Aftab’s Vulture Prince album, and Aftab is returning the favour by producing Chapter I: Forever, For Now, giving it an aural sheen. Both artists are rooted in their respective Indian and Pakistani cultures, but living abroad. There are not many examples of Indian and Pakistani artists collaborating like this.

Shankar has said this is the first in a trilogy of ‘mini-albums’ for Berlin-based Nils Frahm’s LEITER label. Chapter I: Forever, For Now is a verbose title for just four tracks and 23 minutes of music.

The opening ‘Daydreaming’ is a gentle introduction featuring sparse piano notes from Frahm, widely spaced, leaving room in the middle for Shankar’s arched and yearning sitar phrases. ‘Stolen Moments’ is more introspective with repeated melodic figures over and over again and a soft dialogue with organ-like harmonium. But the heart of the album is ‘What Will We Remember?’, and the most substantial track at nine minutes. An accordion takes us into another sound world with a high electronic drone like a heat haze. Shankar’s sitar starts thoughtfully, but she builds it into an ebullient fantasia with luminous percussion. It’s a glorious outpouring. The final ‘Sleeping Flowers (Awaken Every Spring)’ is a gentle close.