recording sessions – The Travelling Archive

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মৃদঙ্গে উঠিছে ধ্বনি
শুনি তার পদধ্বনি রে।
সেই ধ্বনিরই কম্পন
আমার হিয়াতে শুনিলাম,
আমার মন, মন রে,
ক্যানে বা তারে চিনিলাম?

Field recording forms the very backbone of The Travelling Archive. Here is a selection of session notes, chronologically arranged from 2003. They hold mostly audio recordings from the field, some video too, with cross references to our own work and the work of others. These are not reproduced straight from notebooks, but sessions as remembered by us.

2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019

Bolpur, Birbhum. 25 November 2003. Nimai Chand Baul
Saptiguri, North Bengal. 27 November 2003. Nirmala Roy

Masadda, Birbhum. 24 July 2004. Kalpana Dasi
Tarapith, Birbhum. 14 October 2004. Kanai Das Baul
Santiniketan, Birbhum 27 Nov 2004 Debdas Baul, Nandarani
Changrabandha, Coochbehar. 16 December 2004. Abhay Roy
Dhaka, Bangladesh. 23 December 2004. Monjila
Dhaka, Bangladesh. 24 December 2004. Ali Akbar
Sylhet, Bangladesh. 26 December 2004. Abdul Hamid
Srimangal, Sylhet. 27 December 2004. Tea garden singers

Bhaddi, Purulia. 6 January 2005. Amulya Kumar, Hari Kumar
Shaspur, Birbhum. 8 January 2005. Golam Shah and sons Salam and Jamir
Kenduli, Birbhum. 13 January 2005. Ashalata Mandal
Kenduli,Birbhum. 14 January 2005. Fulmala Dasi
Silchar, 25 August 2005, Barindra Das
Chandrapur,Cachar. 28 August 2005. Janmashtami
Krishnai, Goalpara, Assam. 30 August 2005. Rahima Kolita
Chitarpur, Kotshila, Purulia. 28 November 2005. Musurabala

Mahiganj, Rangpur, Bangladesh. 17 January 2006. Biswanath Mahanta & Digen Roy
Debicharan, Rangpur, Bangladesh 18 January 2006 Anurupa Roy & Mini Roy, Shopon Das
Kumar Nodi, Faridpur, Bangladesh. 21 January 2006. Idris Majhi and Sadek Ali
Baotipara, Faridpur, Bangladesh. 21 January 2006. Kusumbala Mondal and others
Uttar Shobharampur, Faridpur, Bangladesh. 22 January 2006. Ibrahim Boyati
Faridpur, Bangladesh. 24 January 2006. Binoy Nath
Jahajpur, Purulia. 27 February 2006. Naren Hansda and others
Sylhet, Bangladesh. 20-21 April 2006. Ruhi Thakur and others
Sylhet, Bangladesh. 21 April 2006. Arkum Shah Mazar
Sylhet, Bangladesh. 22 April 2006. Chandrabati Roy Barman and Sushoma Das
Ambikapur, Faridpur, Bangladesh. 29 April 2006. Hajera Bibi
Sylhet, 21 April 2006, Biditlal Das

Surma News Office, Quaker Street, East London. 27 February 2007. Ahmed Moyez
Bethnal Green, London. 8 March 2007. Baul Abdul Shohid
Limehouse, East London. 13 March 2007. Helal Miah
Saptiguri, Siliguri, West Bengal. 17 June 2007. Sova Minjh, Deunishia Tirki, Prishka Kindo, Miristilla Tirki and Aruna Panna
Silchar, Cachar, Assam. 1 October 2007. Farijuddin

Sadhushree, Shalla, Sylhet, Bangladesh. 13 March 2008. Birendranath Das and others
Faridpur, Bangladesh. 29 March 2008. Habib Pagla
Baotipara, Faridpur, Bangladesh. 28 March 2008. Gosai Das and team
Ambikapur, Faridpur, Bangladesh. 31 March 2008. Jainuddin Boyati and team

Bolpur, Birbhum. 18 November 2009. Gour Khepa
Jadavpur. 12 December 2009. Sanchita Roychowdhury
Suri. Birbhum. 18 November 2009. Lakshman Das Baul

Shaktigarh, Jadavpur, Kolkata. 9 January 2010. Baul Fakir Utsav
Chandrabati Roy Barman. 13, 14 January 2010, Kolkata
Jadavpur, Kolkata, 30 May 2010, Bhakta Das

On River Padma, Faridpur, Bangladesh. 21 October 2011. Fakir Ajmal Shah and Emtaj

Shambhunath’s tea shop, Faridpur, Bangladesh. 15 February 2012. Laila and Habib
Barisal and Sylhet, Bangladesh. 08 to 18 August 2012. Manasamangal by various artists
Shafik’s Teashop, Ghungiar-Gaon Bazar, Shalla, Sunamganj, Sylhet. 16 August 2012. Linkon and Shishu Mia

Jadavpur, Kolkata. 14 January 2013. Nazrul Fakir
Faridpur, Bangladesh. 18 January 2013. Ibrahim Boyati
Faridpur, Bangladesh. 17 January 2013. Habib

Jadavpur, Kolkata. 2 February 2014. Bhakta Das
Mainadal, Birbhum. 19 August 2014. Nityananda Mitra Thakur

Baul Fakir Utsav, Jadavpur, Kolkata. 10 January 2015. Tuntun Fakir
Jadavpur, Kolkata. 11 January 2015. Bhungar Khan and party.

Sarsuna, Kolkata. 9 June 2016. Chandrakala Roy and others

Dumka, Jharkhand, 22-24 January, 2017

Manasar gaan, Munsiganj, 12 January, 2018
Lesson from Nirmalda, Bolpur, 17 June 2018

Kolkata. 4 September 2019. Purnadas on Nabani Das Baul

Notice Board

Sushoma Das has passed. She lives here with us.
Sushoma Mashima

Workshop on the Archive as a Knowledge Site, 2-3 Feb 23, Jadavpur University
Moushumi will present at a workshop on THE ARCHIVE AS A KNOWLEDGE SITE: THE EXPERIENCE OF EUROPE AND INDIA, Organised by SCTR, JU in association with CNRS, France and IRN-AITIA.

Artiste at TIFR, 20-24 May 2022
Moushumi spent five days with students and teachers of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai and also spoke at the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education. Her main talk was on The Travelling Archive https://sites.google.com/view/artiste-at-the-institute/about

Presenting on Baba Betar internet radio

Songs Grow Out of the Land
Audio essay, 66 min. Moushumi, hosted by Arfun Ahmed. 13 February 2021, 8pm BDT, 7:30pm IST, 2pm UK.
www.chobimela.org

Shibaditya Sen

We mourn the passing of Shibda, Shibaditya Sen (1952-2018), our teacher in Santiniketan. Gone too soon, and another light has faded out of our sky.
Read more in our tribute page

Third album from Travelling Archive Records

Salamot bhai

Salamat Khan (Salamot bhai as we called him) passed away at dawn on 12 August 2015. He was so essential to our world, yet so much like a bird impossible to catch. Forever uncaged and uncageable. His death to us is like the last visible flight which he has taken. As if he had a sharp beak with which he pierced the sky and once he went in, the sky closed itself upon us. We lesser mortals were left below looking skywards, our hearts filled with longing for a little bit more.

The Travelling Archive in East London

Chandrabati Roy Barman (1931-2014)

We grieve the passing of Chandrabati mashima. At the same time we feel blessed to have known her through this last decade of her life, although it seems like too short a time now.. Chandrabati mashima opened for us new worlds of listening and understanding music. Also new ways of understanding what it is to be a woman and an artist. There is much to learn from the utshaho--her boundless energy and courage--which was seemingly at the root of everything she did and dared to do. When we first heard her in 2006, we felt sure that this music would travel. It did indeed. Mashima was always loved in her own land, but when she came to our Baul Fakir Utsav in Kolkata in 2010, she won the hearts of thousands more. Now young singers of the city are singing some of her songs--dhoirojo na dhorite, pari na shohite, onurage tonu jhore --which they have picked up from the Utsav's CDs, also from our recordings perhaps. As they sing, we hope they will remember that it is Chandrabati Roy Barman who gave them to us. Our own CD of her and Sushoma Das' songs and conversation from Travelling Archive Records has been received with critical appreciation by many, crossing boundaries of language and culture. Slowly the music seeps in; music made of songs and conversation, everyday sounds and silences. As we listen, the image of the artist comes alive. Some do not die, they only make a transition.

Remembering Sadek Ali

Sadek Ali of Faridpur, Bangladesh sold grains for his living, but lived for his songs. As a child he followed the folk poet Jasimuddin around wherever he went and the poet’s shadow seemed to hang on him for the rest of his life. Every time he sang for us, he would religiously mention that he had spent 45 years with Jasimuddin. There was a framed photograph of Jasimuddin on the wall of his shop in Faridpur market. Sadek Ali not only sang for us but also generously organised recording sessions in the space of his house, first in 2006 and then again in 2008. Last time we went to see him in 2011, Sadek Ali bhai was lying semi-paralysed in bed having suffered a stroke some months ago. He passed away in 2013.

Nimai’s dotara falls silent

Nimai Chand Goswami, the baul musician who passed away on 14 June 2014, was on our first ever field recording session. Moushumi had been to his house in Suripara, Bolpur in November 2003 with Sudheer Palsane, who recorded the session on a Sony PD 150 DV camera, even before the first IFA grant was announced. They went unannounced and Nimai was generous enough to let them in; he played music and talked about his life, mixing reality with fiction. The reason for this early visit was the sound of Nimai's eloquent dotara, we hadn't yet heard much, but Nimai was among the few things which occupied us in that preparatory phase. We had heard him on albums released in Europe with Paban Das Baul, such as Manuche O Rautan. Later Nimai had taken Moushumi to meet Kalpana Dasi and Shyamsundar Das Baul of Masadda, also in Birbhum. One place led to another, from one recording session we went to the next. As the initial years passed and we began to gather experience, we did not go back to Nimai any more; only met him occasionally at melas and festivals, also at our own Baul Fakir Utsav. But it is not easy to forget the sound of Nimai's dotara--not for its virtuosity, but because it was deeply affecting. Coincidentally, the first text in Bangla on the top of our Home page, is from a song we had heard Nimai sing. When we chose those lines about the power of listening, little did we know that Nimai's dotara would fall silent so soon.