Ahluwlia is known for her daring collaborations with musicians from far flung corners of the globe. In her new CD, “Aam Zameen: Common Ground,” she teams up with Tinariwen, a Tuareg desert blues band from Mali, as well as traditional Tuareg musicians and a Gambian “ritti” player.

When Ahluwalia and the Tuareg musicians met in France to record, they often had to resort to hand gestures to convey ideas. She says they experimented, rehearsed, gesticulated and laughed together for hours before the recording session began.

“So when I walked into that Paris studio all of my energy pods were open, and oh my God, at the end of that day like 20 people had jumped inside of me,” she says. “We just found a completely instant connection after we started singing."

That kinship can be heard in “Musst Musst" the CD’s signature song. Ahluwalia knew it was a risk for her mostly Indian musicians to play a traditional Sufi Muslim song from Pakistan with Tuaregs in a Saharan blues style. But South Asians and Tuaregs both combine hand clapping and call and response in their traditions, and somehow it worked.

“I think we all succeeded in integrating our different backgrounds so well, it is one unit. There was no dividing line.”

While the musical styles that Ahluwalia explores are rooted in particular cultures, emotions are universal. For example, even though she spoke no Portuguese, she immediately recognized the sense of love and longing that are the hallmarks of the Portuguese “Fado” and sought out a partnership with Fado instrumentalists that resulted in her 2007 “Wanderlust” CD.