On 7 August 2023, the creative duo of two-time Grammy-winning album Divine Tides, Stewart Copeland and Grammy-winning Indian musician/composer Ricky Kej, announce their latest world music collaboration, Police Beyond Borders. Furthering their mission to feature leading talent from around the world, the album, recorded in Bangalore, is a reinterpretation of the seminal 80s band’s classic songs with diverse interpretations and artist representation from South Africa, India, Japan, China, Canada, the U.K, and more.
Copeland and Kej have enlisted top international artists, including South Africa’s Grammy-winning Soweto Gospel Choir, China’s “Father Of Rock” Cui Jian, U.S‑based Berklee Indian Ensemble, Japanese Grammy-winner for Best Global Music Album Masa Takumi, South Africa’s acclaimed Mzansi Youth Choir, leading Indian composer/singer Shankar Mahadevan, renowned British classical trumpeter Alison Balsom, multi-award winning Canadian flutist Ron Korb, legendary Bollywood composers and brother duo Salim-Sulaiman, hammered dulcimer virtuoso Max ZT, and multi-instrumentalist Serj Tankian of metal band System of a Down.
Of the recording Stewart Copeland said, “It was Ricky Kej who suggested that we make a global album out of the Police derangements. It was a lightbulb moment. Of course! The Police was always a global band; we toured all over it and Sting wrote songs about the bigger picture of humanity. The idea of hearing the songs in exotic languages was immediately inspiring and Ricky set about finding the magnificent talents on this record. As with all of the musicians and singers on this record, we exhorted them to step beyond, to take the songs into new places. They sure did do that!”
