This Moment

It's 50 years since guitarist extraordinaire John McLaughlin and tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain formed Shakti as a landmark in the fusion of Eastern and Western musical traditions. This Moment is the group's first new studio album since 1977's Natural Elements, although the pair reunited as Remember Shakti with various collaborators between 1999 and 2001. Here they are joined by new recruits Ganesh Rajagopolan on violin, Selvaganesh Vinayakram on percussion and vocalist Shankar Mahadevan on eight new compositions recorded and mixed in America, Monaco, India and Britain. Despite much of it being recorded long distance, there's a cohesiveness as the pieces progress through interconnected movements and themes, highlighting different soloists and combinations. The voice of Mahadevan is a particularly welcome addition. Whether singing in conventional style or in the Southern Indian tradition of spoken percussion known as konokol, his vocals lend layers of warmth and humanity to McLaughlin and Hussain's shifting rhythmic patterns, while Rajagopolan also contributes a series of taut and soaring solos. From the dynamic melody of the jazzy opener ‘Shrini's Dream’ to the soaring, ecstatic closer ‘Sono Mama’ via the Indo-blues of ‘Changay Naino’ and the skipping dance tune ‘Las Palmas’, this is fusion at its most inventive and adventurous.