Sheila Chandras New Album - 'Echo'
‘Echo’ is likely Sheila Chandra’s final album. A collection drawn from her 90s virtuoso solo ‘live’ performances, the title loosely references the nymph of Greek myth who lost her voice – just as Chandra did 15 years ago.
Full album and digital extras available on 25th September 2026. Pre-release digital singles available on 29th July, 26th August and 9th September.
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A shy studio artist, Chandra gave comparatively few ‘live’ concerts, and one of the most common comments she sees from fans on social media is ‘I wish I’d been able to see her ‘live’. Here she has assembled and cleaned up her best performances, drawn from an extensive search for every concert, TV or radio session recording that she ever made.
Long-time fans will be delighted to hear that although most of ‘Echo’s tracks are drawn from her stunningly austere 90s Real World solo voice and drone trilogy, other additions on the album include two songs from her fifth solo album ‘Roots and Wings’ and a final track drawn from her appearances during the first ‘Imagined Village’ tour in 2007.
The Story of Echo
‘Echo’ takes its emotional arc from the cursed nymph of Greek myth who found herself in love with Narcissus, and spurned by him in favour of his own reflection in a pool, faded away with grief into the hills until only her voice was left.
Though not lyrically tied to the myth, the songs mirror the stages of Echo’s doomed love and loss. But this is an emotional odyssey explored via the vastness of the vocal terrains that Chandra commands – one taken via North Indian ragas, South Indian konnakol, Irish Sean nos, English folk, Scottish coronach, the cry of the muezzin, and resonances from the sacred spaces of the world.
Echo - The Album
Track Listing
Vinyl and Digital full release 25th September 2026
- Speaking in Tongues III (LIVE) 2:14
- Ever So Lonely / Eyes / Ocean (Live)Available on Digital from 29th July 3:26
- Dhyana and Donalogue (Live)4:40
- The Enchantment (Live)4:49
- Waiting (Live)6:01
- Speaking in Tongues II (Live)Available on Digital From 25th september3:08
- Lament of McCrimmon / Song of the Banshee (Live)Available on Digital From 26th august6:42
- Mecca (Live)4:44
- Sacred Stones (Live)5:30
- The Blacksmith (Live)Available on Digital From 9th September2:59
Extras on Digital only
- Speaking in Tongues I (Live)1:45
- Nana / The Dreaming / FINE HORSEMAN (Live)8:22
- Speaking in Tongues IV (Live)3:08
- Shehnai Song (Live)2:08
- Sailor’s Life (Live)4:20
- Shanti Shanti Shanti (Live)0:54
Sheila Chandra's Music Mailing List
Sheila Chandra's legacy in UK Desi and World Music History
Watch Bobbie Friction from the BBC Asian Network recount the impact of seeing Monsoon on Top of the Pops in 1982.
Described by Billboard in 2001 as ‘one of the most beautiful voices on earth’, Chandra trail-blazed her way into mainstream pop when her Asian Fusion band ‘Monsoon’ scored a global hit with ‘Ever So Lonely’.
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(*) Sheila speaks about the history of Monsoon’s ‘Ever So Lonely’ and Monsoon’s only album ‘Third Eye’ with John Diliberto from ‘Echoes’ (USA) in 2023.
Original podcast hosted on the
‘Echoes Online & On The Radio’ Website
“In 1982, no-one had ever seen a British Asian teenager in a sari singing Indian music on Top of the Pops – until Chandra appeared, with a raga-influenced single that would inspire musicians for decades.”
Anu Sharma, The Guardian 2022
Her sonic courage and subsequent solo explorations as the only full-time Asian Fusion artist in the UK in the 80s, made her one of the pioneers of the World Music genre. 1984 saw her make her writing debut at 19 on her second solo album ‘Quiet’, with a work of 10 lyric-less soundscapes which explored the use of the voice as an instrument.
But perhaps the best work of Chandra’s career was the ‘austerely beautiful’ solo voice and drone trilogy she made for Real World between 1992 and 1996, which she wrote in order to allow her to make her first ever ‘live’ appearances alone onstage. These – her sixth, seventh and eighth solo albums – melded and interwove vocal traditions from Celtic laments and Gregorian chant to North Indian raga and Arabic song, into touchstones of world music.
In 2022 the BBC included a signed copy of ‘Ever So Lonely’ 7 inch single in its 100 objects from 100 years of BBC history collection.
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Sheila performs in the studio and muses on her place within the World Music scene with Madelaine Brand on America’s National Public Radio in 2001.
Original podcast hosted on the ‘NPR Music’ Website
“A legacy never forgotten… Even today, British Indian women find themselves the exception, not the rule, to breaking through to mainstream music… [and] any connection with Indian music remains far off. Rarely has Western music seen such a star since, who brought her heritage and culture to the forefront the way Chandra did. Never one to cater to the masses, Chandra… has built a strong foundation for diaspora attempting to find their own voices in Western culture.”
Divya Sethu, Ladies Compartment
(*) The podcast episodes featured on this site are hosted with the express permission of their respective creators. In recognition of their work, an acknowledgment and a direct link to the original source and the creator’s website can be found beneath each audio player.