Music has always been the soundtrack to Ritesh Das’s life. But now, he’s finally the star of the show.

After more than three decades as founder and artistic director of the groundbreaking, Juno-nominated Toronto Tabla Ensemble, the master musician, composer, producer, performer and instructor is stepping into the spotlight with his first solo album, fittingly titled To Begin With. “My path has shifted,” the personable 66-year-old multitasker says with his typical forthright simplicity. “It was time for me to try something new.”

New doesn’t begin to cut it. Sonically and stylistically, To Begin With is an album unlike anything in Ritesh’s long, storied career — though its origin story is hardly unique. Like countless artists, Das had his hand forced by the pandemic. Unable to travel to Toronto from his London, Ont., home to compose and record with his Ensemble, he turned to technology and his home studio. He taught himself to use composing and recording software. He wrote songs that blended live instrumentation with programmed beats, samples and orchestral instruments. And he collaborated remotely with a diverse slate of world-class talents, crafting tracks that changed, evolved and blossomed as they bounced back and forth. The result is the most inspired, expansive and fully realized album of Das’s catalog — an epic sequence of cinematic cuts that blend man and machine, balance spirituality and technology, and form the soundtrack for a globe-trotting adventure film straight out of Das’s boundless imagination.