Seven-time Grammy® Award-nominated sitarist, composer and producer Anoushka Shankar announces a stunning new digital release Love Letters P.S., out on 4th June 2021 on Decca Records Group imprint Mercury KX. The new digital release follows on from the original Love Letters EP released in February 2020 and includes four new tracks: two remixes from composer-producers Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Sandunes and two brand new songs.
For Love Letters P.S., Anoushka is joined by a stellar line-up of female collaborators including singer, songwriter and pianist Norah Jones, singer, co-producer and co-writer Alev Lenz, singer and cellist Ayanna Witter-Johnson and mastering engineer Heba Kadry (Björk, Slowdive) alongside Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Sandunes. Celebrated, best-selling poet Nikita Gill contributes the spoken word poem to ‘Sister Susannah’ – her first foray into music.
To mark International Women’s Day, Anoushka announced the release of her brand-new track ‘Sister Susannah’, available to stream and download now (Monday 22nd March). The track features Anoushka on sitar and spoken word, reciting a chilling poem by Nikita Gill written from the point of view of a controlling man to his partner. Joining Anoushka on the track are Nina Harries, co-writer Alev Lenz and Anandi Bhattacharya providing additional vocals and Manu Delago on percussion.
Anoushka was prompted to release the track after seeing how women were disproportionately affected by the pandemic and learning domestic violence increased significantly during lockdown.
Anoushka says ‘Sister Susannah’ highlights the ways in which victims of abuse and domestic abuse are verbally and physically broken down by their abusers. Over the last year, the world has experienced so many personal and collective traumas. Whereas the songs on Love Letters were written before the pandemic and in a time of personal difficulty, whilst making Love Letters P.S. I was more conscious of the universality of certain experiences and how viscerally women in particular had responded to Love Letters performed live.
Right now, after the tragic murder of a young woman in London and on hearing the statistics of young women experiencing sexual harassment, we are again feeling a collective sense of anger, pain and loss. I hope that ‘Sister Susannah’ can add in any way to the discussions that so deeply need to be had.”
‘Sister Susannah’ is released with a lyric video, created by Jonny Sanders aka PREHUMAN, a motion graphics designer who has worked with the likes of Yoko Ono, Bombay Bicycle Club and Efterklang – watch HERE.
On Sunday 14th March, Anoushka joined a virtual line-up of artists including Gregory Porter and Kamasi Washington at the 63rd GRAMMY® Awards Premiere Ceremony, kicking off the global live-streamed event with a tribute performance celebrating the 50th anniversary of the classic Marvin Gaye track ‘Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology)’ – watch again HERE.
By weaving together the golden threads of that which makes us human – those feelings of loss, heartbreak, and hope – Anoushka has created a musical and lyrical tapestry that expresses the inexpressible. For Love Letters P.S., Anoushka draws on both personal and universal experiences to share the stories that sit at the heart of lived experience, emboldening others to listen with open ears and minds.
