McLaughlin calls this album his “labour of love”. Certainly it is quite unlike anything in his already considerable discography – for a start we do not hear his signature guitar sound; instead, he works with synthesised sounds through a MIDI interface, mostly generated through his guitar – to produce an orchestral-sounding accompaniment to Shankar Mahadevan’s extraordinary voice. With his long-time friend and musical collaborator Zakir Hussain on tabla, what emerges is an album of great beauty and spiritual profundity that transcends any ‘But is it jazz?’ arguments by the sheer honesty and integrity of the music. Based largely on Indian Bhajans – songs with a spiritual theme – McLaughlin abandons the Raga system on which these songs are based that revolve around a drone, or single sustained note, and re-harmonises each song in terms of Western harmony. McLaughlin calls it a new concept in the meeting of East and West musical cultures. It’s not been tried before, but then, 40 years ago, integrating the Hindustani musical tradition of north India with the Carnatic tradition of south India had not been done before McLaughlin convincingly achieved it.