Lakshminarayanan Shankar (born April 26, 1950), also known as L. Shankar, S… Read Full Bio ↴Lakshminarayanan Shankar (born April 26, 1950), also known as L. Shankar, Shankar or Shenkar, is a violinist, vocalist and composer.

Early life
L. Shankar was born in Madras, Tamil Nadu. Growing up in Jaffna, Ceylon, where his father V. Lakshminarayan was a professor at the Jaffna College of Music, Shankar was exposed to Carnatic music and other styles from an early age. His father was an esteemed violinist, his mother L. Seethalakshmi played the veena and all his five older siblings were also proficient in music. The most well known of his brothers is another acclaimed and renowned violinist - L. Subramaniam, who has recorded a number of records himself; another brother, L. Vaidyanathan was a music composer for Indian films. Shankar cites his family and Tyāgarāja as early inspirations.

Shankar began singing at the age of two, playing violin at the age of five, and learning to play drums at seven. At the age of seven L. Shankar gave his first public concert, at the Nallur Kandaswamy temple. He gained considerable reputation in his early youth as an accompanist to some of the most eminent names in Carnatic music such as Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Chembai Vaithyanatha Baghavatar, Palghat Mani Iyer and Alathur Srinivasa Iyer. Following the ethnic riots in Sri Lanka in the 1950s his family escaped to India.

Summary of career
After obtaining a Bachelor's degree in Physics in India, Shankar moved to America in 1969 and earned a doctorate in ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University. Here he met jazz musicians Ornette Coleman, Jimmy Garrison, and John McLaughlin while working as a teaching assistant and concert master of the University Chamber Orchestra. In 1975 Shankar and McLaughlin founded Shakti, a pioneering, groundbreaking and highly influential east-meets-west collaboration, with a fluid sound that managed to successfully combine seemingly incompatible traditions. His first solo album, Touch Me There, was produced by Frank Zappa in 1979. Shankar founded his own band - The Epidemics, in 1982, with the composer Caroline. He released three albums with the band.

During the 1980s, Shankar recorded periodically as a leader, doing both jazz-based material and Indian classical music. His 1980 release of the album Who's To Know on ECM introduced the unique sound of his own invention, the ten-string, stereophonic double violin. This instrument, designed by Shankar and built by noted guitar maker Ken Parker, covers the entire orchestral range, including double bass, cello, viola and violin. He has recently developed a newer version of his instrument which is much lighter than the original.

1990 saw Shankar co-producing a one hour film directed by H. O. Nazareth, which went on to be nominated for Best Documentary film at the Cannes film festival. Shankar worked on the score of the film The Last Temptation of Christ (1988),composed by Peter Gabriel, with his music ending up on both albums of the score - Passion: Music for The Last Temptation of Christ and Passion - Sources. He won a Grammy for his work on the latter in 1994. 1996 saw a Grammy nomination for the album Raga Aberi. Shankar has performed on several of Peter Gabriel's records such as So and Us. Since 1996, Shankar has toured internationally with fellow-violinist (and his niece) Gingger as Shankar & Gingger, garnering critical acclaim and popularity. The two performed at events including the Concert for Global Harmony and Nelson Mandela's 80th birthday celebrations. Shankar & Gingger released their first DVD One in a Million in 2001. After a critically successful tour of North America, the DVD went to number 1 on the Neilsen Soundscan DVD charts and stayed there for four weeks. In 2004, Shankar composed additional music with Gingger Shankar for John Debney and performed on the score for the film The Passion of the Christ (2004).
Shankar has played with some of the greatest musical contemporaries of his time, including Lou Reed, Echo & the Bunnymen, Talking Heads, Frank Zappa, Peter Gabriel, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Charly García, Steve Vai and many more. Shankar has been praised for his ability to mix Eastern and Western influences, assimilating Carnatic music with pop, rock, jazz and contemporary world music. He admits "Ultimately, I would like to bring the East and West together. That, I think, is my role," he says.

More recently, Shankar has used a new stage name, Shenkar, and has created recordings under this name. In 2006 – 2007, Shenkar provided the vocals for the opening credit music and other themes for all episodes of the hit TV series Heroes. He has been lately working in Jonathan Davis', Stephen Day and Ana Maria Lombo's next records.

See the detailed discography at Wikipedia.

New World
L. Shankar Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

此処に在る確かなリアリティー
振り返る昨日なんてくだらない
途切れない空を何処までも
影さえも映らない世界へ
喧噪に紛れて届いた覚醒の声

闇を裂いて溢れ出した
光り掴み掲げろ

I'm awakening in the new world

その手を伸ばしてくれたら
今すぐ君を連れていける
誰よりも高く浮かんで
手に入れた無重力地帯へ

解放の秒読みに
気付いた覚醒の声

研ぎ澄ました翼広げ
風を集め飛び立て
暴れる鼓動時を超えて響け
I'm awakening in the new world

歪む残像溶けて流れていく
描く軌跡は空を貫いていく
終わらない上昇

闇を裂いて溢れ出した
光り掴み掲げろ
求めていたこの瞬間つなげ

君がくれた声を抱いて
高く高く羽ばたく
こぼれる未来眩しいくらい注ぐ

I'm awakening in the new world
New world

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to L. Shankar's song "New World" paint a picture of a world beyond the constraints and limitations of the present. The opening lines establish a solid reality that the singer is currently existing in, but he dismisses it as trivial and chooses to look forward to a world with an unbroken sky - one where he can soar freely without being held back by any constraints. The voice of awakening reaches him amidst the noise of chaos and urges him to break through the darkness and grasp the light that is shining through.

As the song progresses, the singer urges the listener to reach out their hand to join him on this journey to the new world - a place of weightlessness and total freedom that they both can access. He declares that his wings are sharpened, his spirit awakened, and he is ready to fly higher than anyone else to reach the top.

The final lines of the song are an exhortation to embrace the future that's pouring out, overflowing with promise and potential, and to let go of the past as one flies into the new world with open hands and an open heart.

Line by Line Meaning

此処に在る確かなリアリティー
This is the certain reality that exists here

振り返る昨日なんてくだらない
Looking back, yesterday was meaningless

途切れない空を何処までも
The endless sky stretches into the distance

影さえも映らない世界へ
Towards a world where not even shadows appear

喧噪に紛れて届いた覚醒の声
Amidst the clamor, I heard the voice of awakening

闇を裂いて溢れ出した
Torn through darkness and overflowing

光り掴み掲げろ
Grasp and lift up the light

I'm awakening in the new world
I'm waking up to the new world

その手を伸ばしてくれたら
If you reach out your hand to me

今すぐ君を連れていける
I can take you with me right now

誰よりも高く浮かんで
Floating higher than anyone else