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Press Release |  22 Nov 2014 16:06 |  By RnMTeam

Punjab Unbolted: Peninsula Studios launch Rangley Punjabis

MUMBAI: The Peninsula Studios launched their 5th album – Rangley Punjabis of the Peninsula Studios on November 20th, 2014 at Lodi – The Garden Restaurant amongst Delhi’s art and music regulars with names such as Rabbi Shergill, Randeep Singh, Anup Kutty as well as the Prasar Bharti CEO Jawahar Sircar, among others.

The launch witnessed buoyant performances by artists such as Dolly Guleria (daughter of the famous singer Surinder Kaur), Balwinder Singh Mast, Vishaljit Kaur, Afshana Khan, Ranjhan Ali Qawaali group and many others. The album launch was greeted with live performances of the songs on the album such as Jindua, Lathe Di Chaadar, Kamli and Qadri Jugni.

The aim of this album is to showcase the wonderful sounds of Malwa, Doaba, Manjha that make Punjab and curate them in a way that they appeal to wider audience beyond those who speak the language. These musicians come from different and distant corners of Punjab such as Badal, Naushera, Panchlula, Patiala, Verka and bring forth many beautiful facets of Punjabi folk music such as words of the great poets, forms popular and diverse such as the Boliyaan, Bhangra among others. The music according to TPS is both sublime and vibrant.

Being a not for profit organization, The Peninsula Studios focuses to preserve the rich culture of the Peninsula. Focusing on music from Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, where there’s a tremendous similarity in the tradition: the poetry, the music, the literature, the rivers, the saints, the people.

The Peninsula Studios was started in 2010 by  Subroto Chattopadhyay, Chairman and Co-Founder of The Peninsula Studios, his executive career was with Brooke Bond, ITC Ltd and PepsiCo  his is the former MD of HMV along with co-founder Mrs. Sita Raina, who is an actor having acted in Ray’s Shatranjke Khiladi, theatre producer and director. It is a handpicked talented team made up of Avinash Chordia, head of Studios who is a musician with an important Calcutta band Supersonics, Ananya Rane Head of Films, a graduate of the film school in Prague and an assistant director to Ang Lee and Chatharyn Biglow in Life of Pi and Zero Dark Thirty, Narinder Twakley, Head of Events and Logistics.  Deepak Samson, an award winning recording engineer and great musicians like Neel Adhikari and Anil Srinivasan and Miti Adhikari.

Folk and classical music is the soul of India, this music has been an evergreen favourite that fuels energy into celebrations, traditions and also makes for a welcome break from the prevailing trends in the Indian film industry, every time Bollywood does a take on a folk classic.

Ever since the advent of the internet, prevalence and growth of the Indies and rise of video sharing sites, a wonderful fresh amalgamation of folk classical strains with contemporary sounds has made its way into the hearts of many globally.

With a vision to fill the classical, folk and language space by creating high quality content -that not only does justice to the large plethora of traditional music but also makes it more accessible and engaging to the young and old patrons alike, - The Peninsula Studios have carefully compiled 4 volumes of lost musical gems. TPS believes if done well, music rendered in different languages of our country and folk can have universal appeal, is cool and sexy.

Now, they are out with their 5th volume titled Rangley Punjabis of the Peninsula Studio; where they travelled in search for talented musicians in Punjab and met over 438 such talented musicians.

The Peninsula Studios started the Punjab project in January 2014 after a workshop and touched over 438 musicians from various small towns and villages of Punjab. The recording started in mid June which was then converted into a 3-episode serial called, Nokia Music Theatre – RangleyPunjabies of The Peninsula Studios where over 23 musicians were mentored and the music they brought curated and recorded by them.The entire journey was presented by MTV as a 3 episode series Nokia Music Theatre “Rangley Punjabis of The Peninsula Studios.

Now the music album Rangley Punjabis of the Peninsula Studios will be published and marketed globally by the Universal Music Group, part of the Discovering The Peninsula Series.

Sounds of the Peninsula and our journey to discover compositions by some of our best known poet saints since the 12th century, we curated over 230 minutes of music.  The music is set to poetry in exquisite Sanskrit, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Bangla and Gujarati.  Five brilliant young musicians Anil Srinivasan, Sikkil Gurucharan, Supratik Das, Aman Ali and Arshad Khan from Chennai, Kolkatta and Delhi collaborated with us to bring this three part album of life. All the tracks were recorded live @ The Peninsula Studios in a single take, in presence of an invited audience, a tribute to the quality of the artists.  This format and treatment makes the recordings @ The Peninsula Studios unique. This is our modest contribution to take this genre of music to a wider audience and kindle curiosity in our rich literature and poetry."  This created the 3 album Live @ The Peninsula Studios series. This ensemble has been invited for a 3 city tour through Pakistan to showcase music from the South and East of the Peninsula.

The Peninsula Studios is a unique content creation house, who also builds brand and properties. Here singers, musicians, lyricists, poets and composers, can express their creativity in a unique studio where aficionados enjoy live performances, while it is being recorded. They are in a strategic partnership for marketing and publishing with Universal Music –EMI, the world’s largest music company.

Peninsula Studio works on genres such as folk, classical (Carnatic and Hindustani), spiritual music, Gazals, nazms, poetry and theatre in all languages of the Peninsula, while sharing enthusiasm for jazz, blues and world music. Peninsula Studio is not for profit organization and focuses on preserving the subcontinent’s musical heritage.

The album is a part of The Nokia Music Theatre series created by The Peninsula where they do interesting work in classical music but most importantly they mentor musicians from small town villages and curate the content they bring. Their earlier work, Mast Qalandar’s of the Peninsula Studio well received by patrons in India and abroad.

The Peninsula Studio’s first musical programme was conceived by Mrs. Raina, Discovery of the Peninsula, featured musicians from Rajasthan, a desert state with a rich musical tradition. They travelled around and recorded 722 musicians from towns and villages across Rajasthan.The Peninsula Studio is an idea where talent converges to create great music from different parts of the part of our world.

Games