Liquid Reality isn’t a crossover stunt; it’s Anupam Shobhakar’s most focused statement yet. After his 2023 milestone Raga Jhinjhoti on Fretless Guitar—the first-ever recording of Indian classical music on fretless guitar—the New York–based guitarist, composer, and sarodist deepens the East–West dialogue with a sound that feels both inevitable and new.
Rooted in the Senia Maihar Gharana and trained under Aashish Khan, Shobhakar wields a custom double‑neck guitar—one fretted, one fretless—to glide between raga nuance and modern harmony. The album stretches from Sufi‑tinged lyricism to progressive jazz‑rock, powered by an international ensemble: pianists Utsav Lal and Santiago Liebson, kanjeera master Swami Selva Ganesh, vocalists Ona Kirei and Ben Parag, and percussionists Satoshi Takeishi, Chris Savarino, and Gumbi Ortiz.
For fans of Kurt Rosenwinkel, Nels Cline, and John McLaughlin/Shakti, Liquid Reality expands the electric guitar’s vocabulary and brings Indian classical music into a vivid, contemporary frame.