Kiran Ahluwalia: Sanata Stillness

Indo-Canadian singer-composer Kiran Ahluwalia s sixth album Sanata: Stillness is an intoxicating swirl of Indian rhythms, African desert blues, modern jazz colors and a farflung lot of other things, while her previous releases explored the ghazal and folk styles of her native India, Portuguese fado, Celtic fiddle and Afghani rhubab as well. Ahluwalia finds in these disparate cultural languages common ground for a thrillingly new music of discovery and joy that is perhaps best termed None of the Above. Born in Patna, India, Ahluwalia grew up in Canada and trained in Indian classical music and the Indian-Pakistani poetic song tradition ghazal. Her work borrows from these and other tradition-laced forms but moves so far beyond the traditions that they're recognizable only as great-sounding songs. Sanata: Stillness pops with the best thing any music of any kind can offer: The sound of discovery. As if carrying strands of cultural-roots DNA, Ahluwalia's musical melanges tip their hats to the past while sticking determinedly to a freshly hybridized music of sheer sonic surprise, efforts that have earned her JUNO Awards (World Music Album of the Year) for 2004's Beyond Boundaries and 2012's Aam Zameen: Common Ground. Call it The Wild Factor: Sanata: Stillness delivers a blueprint for a borderless world. -amazon.com

Price: $17.98