Ravi Shankar Foundation launches East Meets West music label

The Ravi Shankar Foundation launches East Meets West Music (EMWMusic) this month to bridge the divide between his recorded music and his global audience.

Shankar, a legendary sitarist and composer who pioneered India's classical music fusion with Western culture, has an astonishing archive of thousands of hours of live performance audio, film footage, interviews, and hopes to provide a glimpse into what has most inspired and shaped him in his 70-odd years on stage.

"There is something beautiful about the stage. There is a performer and there is an audience. Nothing is in the way. The sound remains pure and unburdened by things like marketing and distribution. My hope is for this label to be more like a stage and less like the music business as I have experienced it," says Shankar.

The label's debut release is "Nine Decades: Volume One," scheduled for his 90th birthday on April 7 2010. In the fall, EMWMusic will release the George Harrison produced documentary on Ravi, called "Raga" along with the soundtrack to the film.

The newly launched website, EastMeetsWestMusic.com, features release updates and performance information for both Ravi and his daughter Anoushka Shankar who continues his tradition of experimenting musically, taking her sitar into pop, world, rock and even trance music's new territories.