{"product_id":"sheila-chandra-echo","title":"Sheila Chandra - Echo","description":"\u003cp\u003e‘Echo’ is likely Sheila Chandra’s final album. A collection of live performances, the title loosely references the nymph of Greek myth who lost her voice – just as Chandra did 15 years ago. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA shy and infrequent live performer in her time, and very much aware that so many of her fans were disappointed never to have seen her in concert, Chandra has put together this collection of recordings to give them a taste of what her breathtaking virtuoso solo voice performances were like. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt’s a set drawn from an extensive search for every concert, TV or radio session recording that Chandra ever made. From these she has picked the finest performances of her songs, drawn largely from the first two albums of her 90s solo-voice-and-drone trilogy, which was reissued on vinyl on its 30th anniversary, in 2023. Other additions here include two songs from her fifth solo album ‘Roots and Wings’  where she was refining the techniques she would later come to use on ‘Weaving My Ancestors’ Voices’, and ‘The Zen Kiss’ - and a final track drawn from her appearances during the first ‘Imagined Village’ tour in 2007. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe digital release comes with five bonus live tracks not included on the LP format.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"My performances were co-created, by my audience and myself,” says Chandra, and that “it’s a performer’s presence and heart that an audience come to hear, not technical perfection. Concerts are one of the few places where another person gives us their undivided, undistracted and ‘in the moment’ presence, and we, as audience, ‘borrow’ their stilled mind. It’s one of the vanishingly few spaces in our society where that still happens. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe performances embodied on this album, reflect that truth. They are not perfect. And sustaining 100% focused concentration when you’re carrying an entire show alone is impossible. In some cases, I had access to performances of the same song with greater technical perfection, but less ‘soul’. In every case, I have chosen feeling over precision – even, in some cases, chosen ‘soul’ over the best available recording quality. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat said, listening to an album is not the same as being at a live performance, and the listener will pick up on technical flaws, so it’s a balance. But I’ve tried to ignore the impulse to ‘change history’.” \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“At her most triumphant… she pushed her voice into physical and affective spaces, nothing short of wondrous, exceeding boundaries of pop and art music and finding new means of embodying and expressing meaning in musical ways…”\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Real World Records","offers":[{"title":"Black Vinyl LP","offer_id":54686107369795,"sku":"RPT-28268","price":23.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0821\/1601\/8499\/files\/INT_20260722_1149_105436_318_p_RW273_Sheila_Chandra_ECHO_3000px_001.jpg?v=1785230782","url":"https:\/\/www.recordplant.co.uk\/products\/sheila-chandra-echo","provider":"Record Plant","version":"1.0","type":"link"}