One could say sitarist/composer Anoushka Shankar has music flowing through her veins. Daughter of Ravi Shankar, the most celebrated indian musician in the world, she grew up immersed in the ancient traditions of indian classical music. With her 2005 release, Rise, the 26-year old musician, who will be performing with her father at the Kennedy Center this fall, began a quest to merge her musical heritage with more contemporary sounds and influences. Thus, it comes as no surprise that her path would cross that of Karsh Kale, an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, DJ, and producer who, as a solo artist, band leader, and founding member of Tabla Beat Science, has been at the forefront of fusing South Asian tradition with electronica for the better part of a decade .

The impressive result of this collaboration is Breathing Under Water, released today on Manhattan Records, an EMI subsidiary. The album, co-produced by Shankar, Kale, and Gaurav Raina, who has been at the cutting edge of the South Asian electronica scene as a member of The MIDIval Punditz, reflects the sympatico between its principals. “Through common friends we started making music together, says Shankar, “and there was an easy chemistry between us.” Kale responds in agreement, “This was our project first and foremost, no label suggested it.”

An added bonus to the listener is the sheer wealth of talent that Kale and Shankar assembled for this project. Recording in New York, California, and India, a process Shankar describes as “literally insane,” the artists managed to solicit contributions from Sting, Norah Jones (Shankar’s half-sister), Ravi Shankar, Salim Merchant, who is a respected Bollywood arranger and composer, and a host of less well-known, though highly skilled, South Asian classical musicians.

Image courtesy of Manhattan Records