Michael Fremer writes: “The first Shakti album in 46 years is miraculous for a few reasons, the first being a “mind-body” cure for John McLaughlin’s arthritic hand that had forced his 2017 retirement. The second is that though McLaughlin considers Shakti primarily a live band, this release was “phoned in” from various continents where the group members were living at the time. Not a problem for three of them—McLaughlin, percussionist Zakir Hussein and vocalist Shankar Mahadevan—who have been playing live together for decades. They are joined by violinist Ganesh Rajagopalan who replaces L. Shankar the group’s original violinist, and percussionist Selvaganesh Vinayakram. Five musicians recorded around the world at four different studios, yet the resulting recording sounds as if they are playing together in the same room.”
Read the full article in Tracking Angle.