SHASHIDHAR,SHARADA SOFT ECHOES – LP

Description:

UPC: 196922967849
Label: LEAVING RECORDS
Format: LP
Release Date: November 15, 2024
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Los Angeles-based vocalist, composer, and producer Sharada Shashidhar has a deep awareness of the cosmos. Theres a distinct tug-of-war in her music, an understanding that scanning the heavens to answer existential queries isnt quite enough; there are internal depths to plumb as well. Shashidhars first album, 2020s Rahu, found her voice billowing out of smoky, post-beat-scene soundscapes, meditating on the collective unconscious and the energy exchange between all living things. Her newest work, Soft Echoes, is a bold step forward, eschewing her previous works hip-hop tilt for expansive compositions that blend jazz and Indian classical influences into a swirling, spiritual whole.

Though she has an extensive resume as a collaborator in LAs experimental jazz scene, notching work with the likes of Carlos Nio, Zeroh, and the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, Soft Echoes marks Shashidhars first outing as a bandleader. Gathering an ensemble that includes Anna Butters on bass, Julian Rodriguez on keys, Devin Daniels on saxophone, and Timothy Angulo on drums, Shashidhar sought to create a band that ostensibly functioned as an extension of herself. Her primary goals in writing these songs were to let [her] body do what it wanted to do, to trust her intuition, and play without judgment. Through that process, making Soft Echoes became a practice of presence and exploration, a chance to unlearn rigid structures and rediscover the joy of creating for oneself.

Recording took place over three brief, distinct sessions at Altamira Sound in Alhambra, California. Though the full band wasnt ever present at the same time, Soft Echoes sounds like the work of a group in complete, mind-meld focus. Splashy drums nudge up against skronkingsaxophone on Canyon Song, while mushrooming synth tones stack up behind rippling Rhodes piano on Luckiest. Shashidhars elegant voice is the anchor for each of these tracks, sometimes gracefully stretching between instruments like a lithe dancers limbs, other times scattering through psychedelic delay.

She describes the album as having two poles, illustrated by the whimsical, buoyant opener Soft Echoes and the darker, more anxiety-ridden closer, New Echoes. The songs in between may come from different emotional spaces, but its all really reflective, she explains. The album can play like a loop, with Shashidhar entering a portal into the endlessness during New Echoes, only to be transported back to the beginning, full of gratitude and pondering how strange it is to be alive. On Soft Echoes, Shashidhar leads us on a journey through her mind, traversing its peaks and canyons in search of greater connection. I want to take people places, she says, pausing thoughtfully. I cant always guarantee that theyre good places, [but] hopefully youll feel something.

TRACK LIST:

1. Soft Echoes 4:39

2. By The Land 3:57

3. As I Am 5:08

4. Canyon Song 5:16

5. Luckiest 4:05

6. New Echoes 4:12