Nitin Sawhney is all set to release his next album, his seventh on May 2nd. The album titled Philtre will be supported by a global tour including an appearance at Hollywood Bowl in LA. The big push is no surprise, since he signed to a better and obviously bigger talent agency, CAA, where he joins stars like Missy Elliott and Alicia Keyes.
“With every new album, I try to use what I’ve learnt since the last one,” says Sawhney, “and this time, I had so many different experiences to draw from. From working with an orchestra, I learnt more about building a song and playing with a sense of scale… There are things I’ve done on this album I couldn’t even have attempted two years ago.”
The whole album is the typical Nitin mix of global music influences including Indian classical and bengali folk tunes. Featured on the album are folks like Philadelphia based Vikter Duplaix, British singer Reena Bhardwaj, Spanish collective Ojos de Brujo, Ninja Tune’s Fink and human beatbox Jason Singh along with collaborators Tina Grace, Jayanta Bose, Taio and the soulful Sharon Duncan.
“I got so sick of hearing all these justifications for us going to war and being bombarded with misinformation. I was reading about global warming and it felt as though people were becoming almost a virus on our planet. It seemed to me that music is a universal way of getting us through all the daily crap. Philtre means ‘healing’ or ‘magic’ potion and that’s how I feel music,” he adds.