Category: India

Ila Paliwal: ILA – The Earth Symphony

January 26, 2021

Mother Nature blesses humanity with many gifts but she gave Ila Paliwal a little more—her name. “Ila” is Sanskrit for “Earth” and on her second album Paliwal, a classically trained Indian vocalist, songwriter and producer, celebrates her namesake planet and channels her reverence into protecting the environment and embracing diversity. Like the heavenly body it honors, the album is lush, from … More Ila Paliwal: ILA – The Earth Symphony

Aditya Prakash Ensemble: Diaspora Kid

July 29, 2020

Aditya Prakash describes his Los Angeles childhood as “socially American and culturally Indian” and observes that growing up the two aspects of his life were largely separate. He began studying Carnatic music—the classical vocal style of South India—at age five; by the time he was 10 he was shuttling between LA and Chennai in pursuit of his music education, and by 15 he was touring with Ravi … More Aditya Prakash Ensemble: Diaspora Kid

Anandi Bhattacharya: Joys Abound

March 19, 2019

Avatar, shampoo, pyjama, bungalow, veranda, nirvana—all words from India adopted into an array of western languages. Sharing works both ways: Kolkata-born singer Anandi Bhattacharya observes, “I do not believe I was meant to imbibe my own culture alone.” A child prodigy who began studying Indian classical music at age three, she was also exposed to the global sound spectrum through … More Anandi Bhattacharya: Joys Abound

Subhi: Shaitaan Dil

August 27, 2018

Wall Street, Broadway, Bollywood… Legions of aspirants would give anything to work in just one of the places Subhi Khanna passed through on her winding road—from India to America, through finance, journalism and music—pursuing an elusive dream. While commuting between Chicago and Mumbai, where she was composing for film and digital projects, she lamented spending more time networking than creating. One hot summer afternoon in a rickshaw … More Subhi: Shaitaan Dil

Ila Paliwal: Navaratna

December 12, 2016

No one leaves a Holi Festival gathering looking the way they did on arrival. The highlight of the spring rite celebrating the triumph of good over evil is friends, family and strangers throwing colored powder and water on one another. The many-hued observance is a centerpiece of Navaratna (Nine Gems), Ila Paliwal’s album devoted to India’s multicultural festival calendar—nine holiday-named compositions based on classical ragas and a mix of traditional and western instruments, plus Paliwal’s … More Ila Paliwal: Navaratna

Arijit Singh: Soulful Voice

May 22, 2016

Hollywood playback singers are traditionally heard but not seen. In Bollywood, however, the performers whose voices appear on film soundtracks are often as renowned as the actors who appear on screen. Arijit Singh’s 30-track Soulful Voice may seem like a greatest hits album, but it’s actually a collection from just the first two years (2012-2013) of his career; while all the tracks are in Hindi, Singh has recorded in seven languages. His resonant … More Arijit Singh: Soulful Voice

Ghazalaw

December 6, 2015

Gwyneth Glyn sings and writes Welsh folk music. Tauseef Akhtar is a singer-composer from Mumbai and master of Indian ghazal, a traditional form of love poetry. Neither is the sort to compromise cultural integrity; nonetheless, they are clearly passionate about the affinities they discovered in their music. The extraordinary result is Ghazalaw—10 tracks, nine of which pair songs with parallel song-themes of unattainable and lost love. Akhtar sings in Urdu … More Ghazalaw