JazzTimes (p.95) - "The CD's nine meditative and often cinematic tracks offer a worldview where the various native rhythms are melding into one another, and the phenomenon is something to marvel at and ponder..."
Dirty Linen (p.85) - "[S]he displays a remarkable maturity....[The instruments] give these melodic pieces a dreamy and visionary spaciousness."
Personnel: Anoushka Shankar (sitar, keyboards); Sanjeev Chimmaigi, Ritesh Mishra, Rajesh Mishra (vocals); Vishwa Mohan Bhatt (veena); Barry Phillips (cello); Pedro Eustache (bansuri, duduk); Ajay Prasanna (bansuri); Pedro Ricardo Mino (piano); Pulak Sarcar (keyboards); Kevin Cooper (bass instrument); Jesse Charnow (drums); Tanmoy Bose (djembe, tabla); Tapan Raj (programming); Bikram Ghosh (sound effects).
Recording information: GR Studios, New Delhi, India (2005).
Anoushka Shankar may boast celebrity relatives (she's Ravi Shankar's daughter and Norah Jones's half sister), but her sitar mastery is all her own. On previous recordings, she followed in her father's footsteps by performing relatively traditional, raga-based music. RISE, however, is another animal entirely, incorporating jazz, pop, and pan-ethnic world-music textures in an unpredictable melange. At the center of it all, fortunately, are Shankar's unerring sitar expertise and traditional Indian roots.