Anoushka Shankar

Anoushka ShankarINT

SATURDAY 5 JULY

Sitar master combines deep roots and new artistic paths in rich compositions

  • Saturday 5 July

With gripping musicality, a soulful tone, and a bold artistic vision, Anoushka Shankar has taken the traditional Indian sitar into surprising new soundscapes.

Her ambitious compositions have earned her numerous critical accolades and awards since her impressive 1998 debut album, Anoushka, and she continues to be an artist on the move, bridging many genres such as jazz, folk, electronic music and new compositional music, and collaborating with major artists such as Sting and George Harrison.

She is the daughter of the great Indian sitar master Ravi Shankar and carries the rich musical traditions of the sitar into the present. With great respect for the roots, but also with a free approach that allows the sitar's beautiful and diverse tones to flow into new contexts.

Anoushka Shankar's eternal courage to seek new paths for the instrument is reflected in her current trilogy of EPs, opening up atmospheric spaces in collaboration with artists like Arooj Aftab and Nils Frahm. "The dawning of a new day for the sitar," Pitchfork wrote of the second EP in the series. Now Shankar is ready to take the audience at Roskilde Festival on a deep and healing journey into the mysteries of the sitar.