Is That So? is a six-years-in-the-making collaborative album by guitarist John McLaughlin (who turned 78 a week before its release), Indian composer and singer Shankar Mahadevan, and tabla master Zakir Hussain. In 2013, McLaughlin was touring with Mahadevan in the revamped Shakti lineup. Completely blown away by the singers voice, writing, and performance style, McLaughlin was eager to collaborate on something new. Hed had a career-long ambition to wed classical Indian raga to Western harmony. With Hussain in the original 1974 Shakti lineup, the bands music was acoustic and free of Western harmonic concepts, wrapped instead around Indo-jazz fusion. This group experiments with form and function: They regard musicality as an expression of the sacred. McLaughlins guitars sound like synthesizers throughout; they are not really solo instruments but harmonic companions for Mahadevans singing. Hussains tablas are completely improvised. Opener Zakir, with its wafting string-and-synth-like sounds, is given heft via Mahadevans amazing voice, phrasing, and control; its at once spiritual, soulful, and free of earthly constraints. The integration of East and West is seamless and immediate, and it sounds like the trio has been recording this way for decades. Tara is an entreaty and paean to the deity Radha. Its a request to grant the supplicant musical ability for sacred reasons. It comes across as a long cue in a film score, but as McLaughlin constructs the sonic backdrop for Mahadevans lyric as a sensual petition that not only extends but expands, and becomes entwined with, the musical backing. The Search is an Alap lyrical improvisation in a Raag Todi. An alap is the opening section typical in North Indian classical music performances; its a melodic improv form that serves to create a foundation for the emergent raga. At nearly 11 minutes, it offers a long, moody intro before wafting guitar synth, droning tanpura, and Hussains tablas establish a complex, slowly unfurling groove. Its alternately moody, earthy, and painfully tender. Closer The Beloved, at over nine minutes, sounds -- at least initially -- like film music, with lush, harmonic guitar presented on the frontline alongside Mahadevans almost unbearably beautiful singing. As erotic and sensory as it sounds to those who dont understand Hindi, its actually a gorgeous prayer. The lyrics offer a fountain of emotionally free yet disciplined praise, affirmation, and petition; the ghostly guitars and rumbling tablas erect a lush harmonic floor that moves the tune in the direction of jazz, though it never fully arrives. McLaughlins guitar synth peppers the tablas with quick, deft lines and tonal angles. Is That So? is a lovely yet radical and provocative departure for McLaughlin, and one he freely acknowledges longtime fans may not enjoy. Its easy to see his point, but an honest approach to this quietly astonishing music should result in delight for most open-minded listeners. ~ Thom Jurek

Rovi