Sharada Shashidhar Soft Echoes

Los Angeles-based vocalist, composer, and producer Sharada Shashidhar has a deep awareness of the cosmos. There’s a distinct tug-of-war in her music, an understanding that scanning the heavens to answer existential queries isn’t quite enough; there are internal depths to plumb as well. Shashidhar’s first album, 2020’s Rahu, found her voice billowing out of smoky, post-beat-scene soundscapes, meditating on the collective unconscious and the energy exchange between all living things. Her newest work, Soft Echoes (out September 27th on Leaving Records), is a bold step forward, eschewing her previous work’s hip-hop tilt for expansive compositions that blend jazz and Indian classical influences into a swirling, spiritual whole.

Though she has an extensive resume as a collaborator in LA’s experimental jazz scene, notching work with the likes of Carlos Niño, Zeroh, and the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, Soft Echoes marks Shashidhar’s first outing as a bandleader.

Gathering an ensemble thatincludes Anna Butterson bass, Julian Rodriguezon keys, Devin Danielson saxophone, and Timothy Anguloon drums, Shashidhar sought to create a band that ostensibly functioned asan extension of herself. Her primary goals in writing these songs were to “let [her] body do whatit wanted to do,” to trust her intuition, and “play without judgment.” Through that process, making Soft Echoes became a practice of presence and exploration, a chance to unlearn rigidstructures and rediscover the joy of creating for oneself. Recording took place over three brief, distinct sessions at Altamira Soundin Alhambra, California.

She describesthe album as having “two poles,” illustrated by the whimsical, buoyant opener “Soft Echoes” and the darker, more anxiety-ridden closer, “New Echoes.” The songs in betweenmay come from different emotional spaces, but “it’s all really reflective,” she explains. The album can play like a loop, with Shashidhar entering a portal “into the endlessness” during “NewEchoes,” only to be transported back to the beginning, full of gratitude and pondering “howstrange it is to be alive.” ”

She describesthe album as having “two poles,” illustrated by the whimsical, buoyant opener “Soft Echoes” and the darker, more anxiety-ridden closer, “New Echoes.” The songs in betweenmay come from different emotional spaces, but “it’s all really reflective,” she explains. The album can play like a loop, with Shashidhar entering a portal “into the endlessness” during “New Echoes,” only to be transported back to the beginning, full of gratitude and pondering “howstrange it is to be alive.”

On Soft Echoes, Shashidhar leads us on a journey through her mind,traversing its peaks and canyons in search of greater connection. “I want to take people places,”she says, pausing thoughtfully. “I can’t always guarantee that they’re good places, [but] hopefully you’ll feel something.”