Anoushka Shankar shares the third and final part of the trilogy of mini-albums she began with ‘Chapter I: Forever, For Now’ in October 2023, and followed by the GRAMMY-nominated ‘Chapter II: How Dark it Is Before Dawn’ in April 2024. 

‘Three chapters, three geographies,’ Shankar scribbled in a diary at a café in Goa on New Year’s Day two years ago, manifesting an ambitious trilogy that she hoped would span multiple geographies with nods to her roots, across continents and collaborators. Looking back now, it’s safe to say that the 11-time GRAMMY Award nominee has outdone herself. Chapter I was recorded in Berlin acknowledging Shankar’s European heritage (she was born and lives in London), while Chapter II was captured in California, where she moved aged 11 and lived for over 15 years. Central to Chapter III is the mindfulness of India at the root of all her music.

Shankar studied Indian Classical music in a deeply immersive fashion from her father Ravi Shankar. She also attended the British School in New Delhi as a kid. But it was only later as a teenager – when she found herself surrounded by friends from the music and fashion scene – that she forged more personal connections with the people and the land. This included a fascination for Goa Trance – India’s electronic music export to the rest of the world. In her twenties, Shankar escaped to the beach state to disappear from her touring and public life every New Year’s. She chased dance floor epiphanies in secret forest raves, participating with wild, youthful abandon, accompanied by its sibling feelings of positivity, hope, connection and joy. Think Inside Out: Millennial Goa Psy Edition.

That sets the template for Chapter III, where Shankar also holds steadfast in her desire to work with a different producer on each mini-album. Here, that responsibility falls to London-based, Indian multi-instrumentalist Sarathy Korwar, one of the most original and compelling voices in the British jazz scene. Shankar also decided that Korwar would help to ground the release and round out the symbolism around working with the album’s third key collaborator, composer and sarod player Alam Khan, son of the famed Indian classical guru, Ali Akbar Khan.

This is where the story ends, where - after the first two parts of the trilogy - the music now returns to ancestral echoes while carving a path for modern Indian sounds, where all three collaborators step into a space of deep-rooted celebration. If the lasting image of Chapter I is the memory of that enchanting afternoon in Shankar’s garden, her son drowsy in her lap, 'We Return to Light'’s final frame is of someone stepping out from a forest rave into the quietude of a shoreline. The feeling is a mix of nostalgia and renewal. It echoes Shankar’s journey through those Goa raves where all you could do was follow a sign and a person, except it’s now Shankar who is signposting the listener. In 'We Return to Light', our feet meet the water, marking the end of a journey, a return to love, and a place of rest—a perfect, radiant conclusion to the trilogy.

'Chapter III: We Return to Light' is still available through LEITER's Bandcamp and at select record shops worldwide.