New year melody in variety of themes

Spirit Creations released a Bengali album Chhoan at Abanindra Gallery (ICCR) recently. It is a Bengali non-film album featuring five songs covering a wide range of music rendered by ace singers like Srikanta Acharya (Sobi Bhule Jai), Lopamudra Mitra (Banchte Chai), Manomay Bhattacharya (Akash Tomay Chhunye Jabe), Rana Sarkar (Ek Phaali Rang Niye, Music- Satadal Roy), Sriradha Bondopadhay (Akash Ghumay). Sarod exponent Rajib Chakraborty also graced the event.

Lyricist Shouvik Majumder, who has penned lyrics for all the five songs belongs to a musical family from Siliguri and learnt Hindi, Nepali, Urdu (from Iqubal Siddiki). His journey started as a lyricist with RANG, in which he translated Rabindra Sangeet in Hindi. He even wrote ghazals for which he was conferred with the title "Kahinoor-E-Ghazal". Zubin Garg, the popular singer, even did lots of shows for Shouvik.

Composer Rana Sarkar, son of eminent singer Sudhin Sarkar of Golden era, has composed four songs in this album. His name was included in "Limca Book of World Record" for non-stop 36 hours harmonium playing in "Indian Classical Music" with Pt. Ramesh Narayan.

A musician from R.D. Burman's team, Shyam Raj (Saxophone) has played in one song. Beside that noted musicians like Satadal Roy (lead guitar), Joy Nandi (Tabla, Thumba, Cazan and Percussions), Rahul Chattarjee (Sitar), Tarun and Bubai (Flute) have played musical instruments in this musical venture.

Ek Jaati Ek Praan (EJEP)

Soma Das, a singer who loves root musicians resides in London though she did her diploma in Tagore songs from Dakshini, a noted music institute from Kolkata. She has released her single 'Ek Jaati Ek Praan' basically a song of Lalan Fakir named Jaat Gelo Jaat Gelo revolving around the serious issue of communalism.

It was released in the presence of Srabani Sen, Riddhi Bandyopadhyay, Dipannita Acharya on INRECO. Soma loves to include root musicians, be it baul, tribal musicians, street musicians, or traditional old band party group. In her recent venture, she has done shooting at Santiniketan with bauls and danced with Saotali musicians too.

She has also worked with noted music composer-musician Debojyoti Mishra on her debut Tagore album Amar Praner Manush which was released in presence of popular band party group from Kolkata, Mahboob Band. In her recent visit to Kolkata, she launched her single 'Jaat Gelo' (co-singer Pratyay Raha), with narration by Samya Karpha. She is all set to release another single to commemorate the International Mother Language Day, composed and penned by ace singer Rupankar in February.