Asha Puthli
Slinky, cosmic fusion that floats between psychedelic soul and avant-garde jazz. A breathy, interstellar invitation to the coolest late-night lounge in the galaxy.
Slinky, cosmic fusion that floats between psychedelic soul and avant-garde jazz. A breathy, interstellar invitation to the coolest late-night lounge in the galaxy.
Asha Puthli sounds like a dream you had about a 1970s disco on a space station. Her voice is a marvel of controlled intimacy, often delivered in a breathy, whispered style that feels like she is sharing a secret directly into your ear. The music around her is a lush tapestry of warm analog synths, funky basslines, and sophisticated jazz arrangements that never feel heavy, only buoyant and fluid.
What makes her truly distinctive is the way she bridges the gap between Hindustani classical training and Western avant-garde experimentation. While her contemporaries were belting, Asha was innovating with texture and space, using her voice as a delicate, shimmering instrument. This 'Space Talk' aesthetic prefigured acid jazz and trip-hop by decades, blending a meditative Eastern sensibility with the rhythmic drive of New York's underground club scene.
Start with her 1973 self-titled debut for the perfect introduction to her genre-blurring magic. If you want to hear the blueprint for modern chill-out music, head straight to the track 'Space Talk' from 'The Devil is Loose'. It is the ultimate gateway into her world of cosmic, high-fashion funk.
Asha Puthli (born February 4, 1945) is an Indian singer-songwriter, producer, and actress. Puthli moved to New York from Mumbai with a dance scholarship, a demo tape of Indo-Japanese fusion songs. In 1970, she was signed to CBS Records and subsequently released several solo albums. Praised as a "fusion pioneer" by The New York Times, her recordings cover blues, pop, rock, soul, funk, disco, and techno. She also starred in films by Ismail Merchant, James Ivory, and Bruno Corbucci. In 2025, Puthli was inducted into the Women Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Shares jazz fusion, stargazing, disco, funk (signature)
Shares jazz fusion, disco, funk, soul (signature)
Shares jazz fusion, stargazing, disco, funk (signature)
Shares jazz fusion, disco, funk, soul (subgenre)
Shares jazz fusion, disco, funk, soul (subgenre)
Shares jazz fusion, disco, funk, soul (signature)
Shares jazz fusion, disco, funk, soul (signature)
Cassette uses generative AI to enrich its catalog. How we use AI →
