Gorillaz – The Mountain Album Out: Sitarist Anoushka Shankar Grabs the Wheel with 6 Main Tracks, Shares the Collective Space with Musical Giant Asha Bhosle, Asha Puthli and Other Global Artists

It’s a new release from Gorillaz with ‘Gorillaz – The Mountain’, an album that brings together an Indian and international range of musicians under one roof. The album boasts 15 tracks, featuring an interesting musical ensemble, with icons like Asha Bhosle, Anoushka Shankar, Asha Puthli, Amaan Ali Bangash, Ayaan Ali Bangash and international artists including Bizarrap, Kara Jackson, Paul Simonon, Johnny Marr, Black Thought and others.

What makes the Gorillaz Album a standout is Anoushka Shankar, stretching the album by featuring in 6 tracks out of the 15, and sharing the space with a titan like Asha Bhosle. It brings together a legend of the past, Disco Queen Asha Bhosle, and one of the most relevant figures in Indian music today, Anoushka Shankar. The artist adds her sitar touch to The Mountain, Orange County, The Empty Dream Machine, The Plastic Guru, The Sweet Prince and The Sad God. With Anoushka Shankar on sitar, Bangash brothers on sarod and Asha Bhosle’s unmistakable vocals, Gorillaz’s new album is a masterclass in cross-continental collaboration.

It can be assumed that the songs created with Indian giants will be conscious of the real world too. Opening up about the collaboration, Anoushka says that when she came in, “They were very open about which songs to put sitar on, and after one or two, they must have liked my style, so we kept doing more.” She played throughout the record, and then Gorillaz made their pick. “We did a big two-day session, and in the end, I think I’m on six or seven songs,” she says.

“Artists like me have been in this kind of crossover work for decades now. However, with someone at their stature, with incredible reach and fanbase, bringing it into the mainstream does not happen frequently. It happened with The Beatles and few other moments too, but not often. This feels like one of those moments where people will hear something otherwise might not. Some might want to explore more, and that would be an amazing thing,” she says.

With Gorillaz: The Mountain Album, Anoushka Shankar takes the wheel with 6 out of 15 tracks, rewiring an entire sound system!