On the evening of Saturday, March 15, 2025, the Fonda Theatre in Hollywood transformed into a sanctum of sound—a spiritual sphere where genre lines dissolved, time folded, and the ancient strings of the sitar reawakened contemporary consciousness. The star of this transcendent experience? Anoushka Shankar, the sitar virtuoso, composer, and eleven-time GRAMMY-nominated artist whose name has become synonymous with boundary-defying artistry.
With the recent release of Chapter III: We Return to Light, the final installment of her intimate and exploratory trilogy, Miss Shankar brought her radiant musical vision to life on stage—not merely playing songs but conjuring entire inner landscapes. Those lucky enough to witness her Los Angeles performance didn’t just attend a concert; they stepped into an evolving narrative of memory, rebirth, and sonic liberation.
Anoushka Shankar & the Modern Raga Renaissance
The performance unfolded like a ritual in motion. Each piece began in quietude—a seed of melody, a whisper of raga—that slowly bloomed into sprawling musical ecosystems. These weren’t just songs; they were meditative explorations, spiraling inward and upward before cresting into ecstatic resolve. Like her recent work with Nils Frahm’s LEITER label, the live interpretations felt deeply intentional but never rigid, fluid yet rooted.
Opening with selections from Chapter III, the show’s first movements immersed the audience in looping sitar phrases, backward sarod textures, and the unmistakable rhythmic presence of Goa trance influences—subtly encoded into the soil of each song. As she shifted between drones and dizzying licks, Shankar displayed a mastery both traditional and revolutionary. Her sitar playing oscillated between delicate ornamentation and rapid-fire bursts of energy, commanding every inch of the venue with both elegance and ferocity.
This modern approach is not fusion in the dated sense. Rather, it is an evolved conversation between classical Indian frameworks and global electronic, jazz, and ambient sensibilities. What we heard at the Fonda wasn’t music trying to bridge worlds; it was a world, full of contradictions, textures, and revelation.
A Constellation of Musicianship
Backing her was a hand-picked ensemble that didn’t just accompany her—they conversed, challenged, and illuminated her playing in real time. Sarathy Korwar on drums functioned as both heartbeat and engine. His acid jazz-inflected rhythms surged forward with visceral precision, often escalating the room’s energy to a kinetic climax. During tracks like “Dancing on Scorched Earth,” Korwar’s pulse-like drumming created an ecstatic counterpoint to Shankar’s intricate riffs, making the room feel like a temple on the edge of eruption.
That track, “Dancing on Scorched Earth,” was also my personal favorite performance of the night. The way each musician locked into one another’s timing—radiating hypnotic intensity over a foundation of trance-like simplicity—was nothing short of electrifying. Shankar’s use of her POG pedal added a lower-octave crunch that rippled through the space, making the sitar feel both ancient and futuristic. It was the kind of musical alchemy that made you forget where you were—and remember something deeper within yourself.
Clarinetist and Rhodes player Arun Ghosh added a cinematic air to the sonic proceedings. His exchanges with Anoushka Shankar were among the evening’s highlights—lyrical, fiery, and emotionally matched. Their call-and-response phrasing, especially during a mid-set improvisation, felt like two souls speaking the same language through different instruments. Ghosh would dip into klezmer-like intensity, then rise into jazz-like phrasing, all while matching the sitar’s emotive arcs.
Tom Farmer on upright bass served as the anchor to the ensemble’s flights. His lines were never showy, yet they added a deep undercurrent of emotion and grounding to each arrangement. In moments when Shankar and Ghosh ventured into free-form improvisation, Farmer’s playing kept the music tethered to the present, like a quiet breath beneath cosmic chaos.
Each member of this ensemble was given space to shine, not as soloists, but as vital contributors to the collective ritual. This wasn’t a band—it was a constellation.
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Between Earth and Sky: Sitar as the Storyteller
But it was Shankar herself who served as the alchemist of the night. Her compositions—pulled from the trilogy’s three chapters—felt like chapters of an emotional and spiritual autobiography. At one point, she introduced “Hiraeth,” referencing the backward sarod lines developed with Alam Khan and Korwar, and nodding subtly to her father Ravi Shankar’s influence through its embedded raga, Palas Kafi. The emotional weight of her lineage was not heavy or sentimental; it was worn with grace and expanded into something entirely her own.
One of the most stunning moments of the night came during the closing piece, “We Return to Love.” Based on Raga Manj Khamaj, this major-scale melody shimmered with a bittersweet nostalgia. The composition carried a beautiful sense of return—not just to roots or heritage, but to a personal equilibrium. Played as the encore, it felt like the conclusion of a cinematic arc: the final step of a pilgrim emerging from the forest rave into morning light, barefoot, grounded, and awakened.
The crowd, drawn into Shankar’s spiritual and sonic world, responded with thunderous applause and reverent energy throughout the evening. The Fonda, bathed in warm tones and shadows, felt like a temple where sound healed and elevated.
Shankar Guides the Return to Light
In an age where cultural hybridization is often clumsy or commercialized, Anoushka Shankar offers a masterclass in musical integrity. Her March 15th performance at the Fonda was a rare and precious thing: deeply personal yet universally resonant, anchored in heritage but pulsing with future energy. Through sitar, rhythm, and soul, she guides listeners not just through songs, but through themselves.
And as we walked out into the cool Hollywood air, we did so a little lighter, as if we too had returned to light.
