V2 gears up to spread Sawhney's world view.

When Nitin Sawhney's breakthrough album Beyond Skin was released in September 1999, the quietly unassuming multi-instrumentalist was little known outside select music circles except, perhaps, as one of the co-founders of the Goodness Gracious Me comedy team.

Since then he has played with Paul McCartney, been nominated for a Mercury Music Prize and been praised to the rafters by the likes of Madonna. Clearly, there is a lot resting on his follow-up album, his first for V2 following his split from Outcaste Records.

Sawhney has certainly accepted the challenge head-on. His V2 advance allowed him to approach recording with a new perspective, embarking on an ambitious two-month trip around the world to collect contributions from more than 200 musicians for what would eventually become his third album, Prophesy.

With the bare bones of the album created in his Willesden studio in north west London before the journey, the travelling -- locations including Spain, South Africa, France, India, Australia and the US -- was more about finding the soul of the music. "It wasn't about simply recording -- it was about getting intangible inspirations for the album and trying to experience something real," he says.

"I went around with a laptop and a MiniDisc Walkman to get an organic flow to the evolution of the album, trying to get in touch with people who I thought were spiritually developed -- from Mandela in South Africa, Aborigines in Australia to native Americans and kids in Soweto."

One key collaboration was with Chicago soul veteran Terry Cailler, whose track, Street Guru, features a randomly sampled Chicago cab driver "going off on one about development, technology, multiculturalism".

Meanwhile, time spent in Brazil saw Sawhney continue his working relationship with Sting, a friendship that also sees the pair share the bill at UK gigs this summer.