Keshavara wears bold headpieces and speaks an adventurous patois of English, Hindi, German, and Gibberish. On their new album "III," the Cologne-based outfit led by German-Indian musician Keshav Purushotham creates music in a way other people mix their cocktails after they’ve already enjoyed three drinks: Washed-out kraut-pop and diasporic dub-not-dub excursions are roughly measured out and then shaken wildly.

Sweet and mesmerizing melodies, borrowed from a fantastic no man’s land in the border region between exotic library compositions and psychedelic soundtracks, merged with the grooves of a rhythm section that would have felt right at home in the recording studios of mid-seventies’ funky Beirut. The outcome is a seductively colorful cocktail with the dazzling effect of hallucinogenic Jell-O, topped with a surrealist sugar rim. Music that shimmers and flickers like a mirage in the desert.

While Keshavara's debut was a solo album and its follow-up "Kabinett der Phantasie" was essentially a duo's work, with their self-produced third album, titled "III," Keshav Purushotham, Niklas Schneider, Benedikt Filleböck, and Christopher Martin have finally grown together into a four-piece band. With "III," Keshavara prove themselves to be shrewd sound alchemists and accomplished travelers between worlds, a soft power whose strength is fed by the band's members' enormous musicality, love of storytelling, and surrealistic wit.