Recorded by the ethnic folk music expert and producer Deben Bhattacharya in the year of his death (2001) for the film “Music According to Deben Bhattacharya”, this album of field recordings focuses on the Murshidi (spiritual master) singers from Bangladesh. Devotional rites and esoteric poetry set in folk music, the melodies are often nostalgic and slow. Sometimes, as can be heard on this album, the rhythm is made faster so as to make the songs more attractive. Extensive information about the history, music and instruments can be found in the accompanying booklet.

(2-CD set) Deben Bhattacharya celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Jewish State with recordings made in the first years of it's etablishment. They recall a time when people with the same religion but from different cultural backgrounds were arriving from the world over. These CDs are a precious archive of the musical and cultural encounters of those early days.

Classical Music

(2-CD set) Silk-stringed instruments & Chines Storytelling with music

Sufi songs from India and Iran' contains field recordings of traditional Sofi music made in 1955 1979 and 1999.

This new release is both a valuable cultural document and a rare collectors' item. It features historical, unrehearsed live field recordings of traditional music made in Thailand in 1973 by ethnomusicologist Deben Bhattacharya. As in most countries of Asia, Thai music consists of two distinct features: the folk songs and dances which belong to the village traditions, and the piphat orchestra with it's complex structure, no doubt developed and played for the elite, both in villages and towns. The village music in the main is melodic, with songs and dances accompanied by woodwind and stringed instruments, as well as drums and metal percussion instruments for providing the rhythm. The piphat band, on the other hand, employs a rich collection of percussion instruments belonging to the metallophone and the xylophone families and played with drums, gongs, and cymbals. These are divided into two sections, one providing a melody and the other the rhythm. Sometimes the orchestra is led by a single woodwind instrument, the pi nai, which belongs to the oboe family, like the Indian shehnai. The music is played in a diatonic scale with seven equidistant notes but without any semitones between the steps of the octave. This album begins with the music of the piphat orchestra played for Ramakien, the epic which represents the political and the cultural history of Thailand since ancient times

Afghan nomad tribal dances, love songs, battle tunes... played on authentic instruments, such as ghichak (fiddle), zeir baghali (goblet drum), surnai (shawm), dholak (double headed drum), rabab (lute) and more. Afghan music and traditions - almost lost - preserved in invaluable field recordings made in Kabul in 1950 and 1970 by ethnomusicologist Deben Bhattacharya.

This new Musical Explorers series from ARC Music makes available, often for the first time, a valuable range of historical films and audio recordings gathered from all over the world. During the 20th century more people started travelling and became more aware and interested in the world’s musical traditions. And technological advances meant that the equipment necessary to record those musical traditions in their natural environment become more portable and of higher quality. In Songcatchers, his excellent book about music collectors, Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart writes: “I’ve learned what it takes to be a field recordist: how you have to fight the rain, the insects, the sand, the sun. You have to drink with and eat the food of the musicians you’re recording and observe their traditions, no matter what they are. To understand the heart and soul of a music, to earn the right to hear it, you must respect and honor the culture that creates it.” All the musical explorers in this series did exactly that. The recordings on this album were made in Taiwan in 1973 when mainland China was undergoing the destruction and upheaval of the Cultural Revolution. Musical Explorer Deben Bhattacharya was fascinated by the traditional Chinese culture he found in Taiwan. The accompanying film includes not just music, but other traditional arts and crafts.

The new Musical Explorers series from ARC Music makes available, often for the first time, a valuable range of historical films and audio recordings gathered from all over the world. The next release on this series is Music of Tibet, curated by Simon Broughton. Accompanying the album is Deben Bhattacharya’s film, Echoes from Tibet, which was shot in 1979 in Ladakh, Darjeeling and Dharamsala. This is where many Tibetan exiles and the Dalai Lama (who appears in the film) are based. The music on the accompanying album was recorded in 1975 and 1979 in the refugee communities of Ladakh, Himalchal Pradesh, Sikkim and Darjeeling, and also in Sarnath, close to Varansi where The Buddha gave his first sermon. The music on the album was recorded by Deben Bhattacharya on his Nagra in 1975 and 1979. “For the new Musical Explorers series by the British label, the world music expert Simon Broughton has raised a real treasure.”

Field Recordings from the archives of the late Deben Bhattacharya from various temples of the Sikh, Buddhist and Hindu religions, recorded on location between 1954 and 1973. Discover the roots of much of India's music in their purest and original form. Extensive information about India's religious music and each of the pieces.

River Songs of Bangladesh - Field Recordings by Deben Bhatta