Shankar
Crystalline double-violin melodies that bridge ancient raga traditions and futuristic jazz fusion. Intricate, soaring, and deeply transcendental music for the soul.
Crystalline double-violin melodies that bridge ancient raga traditions and futuristic jazz fusion. Intricate, soaring, and deeply transcendental music for the soul.
Shankar's music is a masterclass in sonic fluidity, centered around the otherworldly resonance of his custom ten-string double violin. It sounds like a conversation between the ancient and the extraterrestrial, where traditional Carnatic structures are stretched and refracted through the lens of avant-garde jazz and electronic textures. The sound is often characterized by long, liquid glissandos that mimic the human voice, supported by intricate, driving percussion that feels both grounded and propulsive.
What truly sets him apart is his ability to navigate impossibly complex time signatures while maintaining a sense of effortless grace. Whether he is collaborating with Western icons like Peter Gabriel or Frank Zappa, or leading his own ensembles, his playing possesses a distinctive 'singing' quality. He utilizes the full orchestral range of his unique instrument to create a wall of sound that can shift from a whisper-quiet meditation to a thunderous, high-energy crescendo in a single breath.
For those new to his massive catalog, the 1981 masterpiece 'Who's to Know' offers the perfect entry point into his classical raga mastery. If you prefer his more collaborative, fusion-oriented side, his work with Shakti or the soundtrack for 'The Last Temptation of Christ' showcases his ability to weave his violin into the very fabric of cinematic and global soundscapes.
Shankar Lakshminarayana (born 26 April 1950), better known as L. Shankar, is an Indian violinist, singer and composer who also goes by the stage name Shenkar. Known for his contributions to world music, he is often regarded as one of the pioneers of East-West fusion, blending the traditions of Indian classical with Western genres such as rock, pop, jazz, and electronic music. His extensive body of work spans a wide spectrum of genres, encompassing vocal and instrumental compositions. He has released 28 solo albums, the two latest being Full Moon and Over the Stars, which were released in September and August 2024, respectively. Shankar is credited with inventing the stereophonic double violin (known as the LSD – L. Shankar Double Violin), which covers the orchestral string family's range. His world music albums with the band Shakti during the mid-70s became the "standard to gauge the playing and composing abilities of any world musician following in Shakti's expansive wake". In 1990, Shankar's talam-bending (time cycles of 9 3/4 & 6 3/4 beats) Pancha Nadai Pallavi album was on the Billboard top ten world music chart for three months, becoming the first traditional Indian record to attain this status. His 1995 Raga Aberi album was nominated for a Grammy Award, in the Best World Music Album category. With Peter Gabriel, he worked on the Grammy Award winning album Passion (1989), which was the soundtrack album for Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ (1988). He also wrote and performed vocals on Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ (2004) which won a Dove Award for Instrumental Album of the Year at the 36th GMA Dove Awards. Shankar worked on the soundtrack for the 2002 film Queen of the Damned with Jonathan Davis and Richard Gibbs and recorded eight songs of which five were picked for the movie. Additionally, he collaborated on the original score for NBC's TV series Heroes with Wendy & Lisa. Shankar is ranked amongst the greatest violinists of popular music by Digital Dream Door.
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