The Directorate of Art and Culture, MusiCal and Herald Group will present Ganga Zuari, a Bengali Konkani Folk Fusion Music album release and live performance. Amitava Bhattacharya, Founder Director of Banglanatak dot com, explains, “Ganga Zuari is a Bengali Konkani folk fusion music project presented by musicians of Goa and Bengal singing different genres of Konkani and Bengali folk songs. We started working on the project just two months back. We earlier collaborated with Goan artistes for East West Local and presented ‘Trans Bangla’ a World Music album in 2014. We were in search of Konkani voices and after ‘Goencho Avaz’ organised by Herald Group, we picked the top ten singers, from which three were shortlisted, namely, Divya Naik, Dexter Furtado and Sarah Fernandes.”
“The evening will include a live performance by Divya Naik, Dexter Furtado and Sarah Fernandes from Goa and Debalina Bhowmick from Kolkata. The one hour program will begin with the release of the album ‘Ganga Zuari’, followed by the live performance and will conclude with an interaction with the audience. Divya, and Sarah and Dexter will sing a Konkani song and a Mando respectively and Debalina will sing a Bengali folk song. The night will come to a musically scintillating end with a fusion between Konkani and Bengali sung by Sarah and Debalina,” adds Amitava. The event will have music by Carlos Gonsalves on percussions, Cely Fernandes on keyboard, Tony Fernandes on guitar, Selwyn Menezes on violin and mandolin, Roy Menezes on saxophone and Elvis Lobo on guitar.
Elaborating further on the Ganga-Zuari collaboration, Amitava says, “We had organised a five-day workshop in Goa from the end of August to the beginning of September. The first collaboration is the music album. The next show will be in Kolkata where we will present more Bengali songs with a few Konkani songs which will happen in December. The music album will comprise nine songs – four in Konkani and four in Bengali with one fusion track. The live recording was done at Art and Culture Studio in Goa with recordist Bhavesh Fulari and Daulat Palyekar.”
Soon after the release in Goa, Amitava and Debalina will be heading to Budapest directly from Goa. “A special release will be held for World Music Expo (WOMEX) 2015, Budapest in October. At the expo, we will be presenting the music album to nearly 46 radio stations that play world music. This is very encouraging for the youth of Goa as it will give their singing talent more world exposure,” concludes Amitava.
(‘Ganga Zuari’, a Bengali Konkani Folk Fusion music album, will be released, followed by a live performance by Goan and Bengali artistes on October 19, 2015 from 6pm onwards at Multipurpose Hall, Sanskruti Bhavan, Panjim)
In Box:
Songs and their singers
Dhalo by Divya Naik
Baul by Debalina Bhowmick
Dulpod by Sarah Fernandes and Dexter Furtado
Dhamail by Debalina Bhowmick
Dekhni by Sarah Fernandes
Behula by Debalina Bhowmick
Mando by Sarah Fernandes and Dexter Furtado
Bichhedi by Debalina Bhowmick
Boatmen song by Sarah Fernandes and Debalina Bhowmick
