| Chants of India | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 6 May 1997 | |||
| Recorded | January–August 1996 | |||
| Studio | Sruthilaya Media Artists Studio, Madras; FPSHOT, Oxfordshire | |||
| Genre | Indian classical, devotional music | |||
| Length | 63:33 | |||
| Label | Angel | |||
| Producer | George Harrison | |||
| Ravi Shankar chronology | ||||
| ||||
Chants of India is an album by Indian musician Ravi Shankar released in 1997 on Angel Records. Produced by his friend and sometime collaborator George Harrison, the album consists of Vedic and other Hindu sacred prayers set to music, marking a departure from Shankar's more familiar work in the field of Hindustani classical music. The lyrical themes of the recorded chants are peace and harmony among nature and all creatures. Sessions for the album took place in the Indian city of Madras and at Harrison's home in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, following his work on The Beatles' Anthology (1995). Anoushka Shankar, John Barham, Bikram Ghosh, Tarun Bhatacharaya and Ronu Majumdar are among the many musicians who contributed to the recording.
Chants of India was well received by reviewers; author Peter Lavezzoli describes it as "a quiet masterpiece" and "the most fully realized collaboration" by Shankar and Harrison.[1] Shankar considered it to be among the best works of his 60-year career.
In 2010, the album was reissued as part of the Dark Horse Records box set Collaborations, which combined various projects undertaken by the two artists, beginning in 1973. Chants of India was the last formal collaboration between Shankar and Harrison, who was diagnosed with cancer shortly after its release. At the Concert for George in November 2002, Shankar incorporated some of the selections from Chants of India, including the album-closing "Sarve Shaam", in a set performed by daughter Anoushka as a tribute to Harrison.