MUMBAI: Kolkata based tabla genius Pandit Tanmoy Bose, who has performed with the likes of Pandit Ravi Shankar and Ustad Amjad Ali Khan released his new album Baul N Beyond recently. The most interesting part of this album is that Bose explores one of the most native forms of music 

Speaking about what drove him to this music, Bose says, "I could find a connection between Folk, Jazz, Indian classical music paired with the timeless philosophies of the Baul music. However, it's unfortunate that people are not aware of our indigenous genres." 

For those who don't know, bauls are a group of mystic minstrels from Bengal. Bauls constitute both a syncretic religious sect and have a strong musical tradition for spiritual expression  It is believed that great poet philosopher Rabindranath Tagore was greatly influenced by one such baul, Lalan Fakir 

Bose was incited to do this album since his experiments with baul music with his band Taal Tantra were well appreciated. Wherever I travelled with my band Taal Tantra, we performed Baul songs and they were always very well received,... he said. His band Taal Tantra features Andreas Weiser (percussionist), Kai Bruckner (guitar), Max Hughes (bassist), Tilmann Dehnhardt (saxhophone) and baul musicians with a dotara and a traditional dhaki. Music aficionado's who have attended their performance believe it to be one of the best examples of fusion music in recent times.

For this album, Bose has collaborated with baul musicians namely Lakshman Das Baul, Krishna Das Bairagya, Kartick Das Baul and Bangaldesh's popular baul singer Anusheh Anadil. The album is unique for one more reason – the instrumentals are allowed to have their own life as majority of the songs featuring on the album go well beyond seven minutes.

Track listing

1. Impressions - Lakshman Das Baul – 07:09 

2. Lalan's Blog.com – Anusheh Anadil – 07:48

3. Fables of Spring – Krishna Das Bairagya – 07:43

4. A Date with the Angles – Anusheh Anadil – 07:11

5. Baul Blues – Krishna Das Bairagya – 08:04

6. Forever in Praise – Lakshman Das Baul – 06:13

7. Infinite Soul – Anusheh Anadil – 04:31

8. Butterflies – Kartick Das Baul – 05:26

Label: Music Today, MRP – Rs.299/-, Genre – World Music