Beyond Skin

Untitled

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Beyond Skin is an album by Nitin Sawhney. It was released on the Outcaste label in 1999. The album focuses largely on the theme of nuclear weapons; Sawhney states in the booklet that the album "has a timespan that runs backwards", beginning at Broken Skin with the India-Pakistan nuclear situation and ending at Beyond Skin with Robert Oppenheimer quoting the Bhagavad Gita – "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds".

Sawhney also aims to question what constitutes one's identity – he writes in the liner notes for the album: "I believe in Hindu philosophy. I am not religious. I am a pacifist. I am a British Asian. My identity and my history are defined only by myself – beyond politics, beyond nationality, beyond azid, and Beyond Skin."

Legacy

The album was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Track listing

1. "Broken Skin" (Sanchita Farruque, Nitin Sawhney) – 4:05
2. "Letting Go" (C. S. Gray, Sawhney) – 4:49
3. "Homelands" (Nina Miranda, Sawhney) – 6:00
4. "The Pilgrim" (Sawhney, Spek) – 4:29
5. "Tides" (Sawhney) – 5:06
6. "Nadia" (Sawhney) – 5:05
7. "Immigrant" (Sawhney) – 6:21
8. "Serpents" (Sawhney) – 6:17
9. "Anthem Without Nation" (Sawhney) – 5:48
10. "Nostalgia" (Sawhney) – 3:41
11. "The Conference" (Sawhney) – 2:53
12. "Beyond Skin" (Sawhney) – 3:48

Trivia

• The vocalist for this song is Swati Natekar who is singing in the Brij dialect of Hindi. The words roughly translate to: "The River ebbs and flows, My lover calls, I do not hear"