Togetherness

Togetherness is a composition by Indian musician Ananda Shankar, released as part of his self-titled debut album in 1970. The track exemplifies Shankar’s fusion of traditional Indian classical music with Western psychedelic rock and funk, a style he pioneered in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Recorded in London, the album was produced under the Reprise Records label, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Records at the time.

The track runs for 3 minutes and 51 seconds. Instrumentation prominently features the sitar, Moog synthesizer, and a rhythmic section blending tabla with electric bass and drums. Shankar performed the sitar parts, while session musicians—whose full credits remain partially undocumented—contributed to the Western instrumentation. The composition’s structure follows a raga-inspired melodic framework but incorporates improvisational elements characteristic of jazz and rock.

Togetherness stands out for its use of the Moog synthesizer, an instrument Shankar adopted early in his career to modernize classical Indian sounds. The track’s title reflects the album’s broader theme of cultural synthesis, a concept Shankar explored through collaborations with Western artists during his tenure in Europe. The album’s liner notes describe the work as an attempt to bridge Eastern spirituality with contemporary Western musical trends.

No singles were released from the album, but Togetherness gained retrospective attention in the 1990s and 2000s through recompilation albums and samples in electronic music. The original 1970 LP pressing included the track as the third piece on Side A. Later reissues, such as the 1996 CD release by Blue Moon Records, preserved the original mix without additional remastering. Specific chart performance data for the track or album is not widely documented.

Ananda Shankar (1942–1999) was the nephew of sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar and trained under him before developing his own fusion style. His debut album, including Togetherness, remains a foundational work in the Indo-jazz and psychedelic fusion genres. Further details about the track’s recording sessions or alternate takes are not publicly available.