"Any player on any instrument, with any ears, would be deeply moved by Ravi Shankar. If you love music, it would be impossible not to be."David Crosby. Few in the West had even heard of the sitar before Ravi Shankar began touring Europe and America in the fifties and early sixties. Introduced to Shankar's music by Roger McGuinn at an Acid-fuelled party in Benedict Canyon, the Beatles quickly became disciples. The sitar would influence Rubber Soul, Revolver and Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and the Benares-born master would be propelled to international star-dom.

For all this fame, and his many successful collaborations with western musicians, Shankar's classicism would not be compromised. That Which Colours the Mind finds Ravi Shankar in magisterial form. A beautiful bouquet of sound and rhythm, and profoundly psychedelic. The five centrepiece tracks of this edition were produced by George Avakian in 1957, whilst the remainder (which feature Ravi and Ali Akbar Khan) are culled from UNESCO's historic Anthology of Indian Classical Music which first appeared in the mid-fifties.