Waves of Joy: Bauls from Bengal

Born in Bengal in 1921, Bhattacharya came to the UK after World War II, worked for the Post Office and as a department store porter – and was asked to assist making some programmes on Indian music for the BBC. He made his first field trip back to India to record in 1953 and returned several more times, concentrating on recording the mystical songs of the Bauls of Bengal. The 14 tracks here were all recorded in 2001 on his final trip before his death and feature the singers Robi Das Baul, Nikhil Das Baul, Jagannath Hajira and Narottam Fakir. Each sings solo over a sparse accompaniment of the one-stringed ektara, dotara (long-necked lute) and khama and duggi drums. The unmediated performances range from the reflective to the ecstatic, as devotional voices soar heavenwards over the raw, plucked strings and earthy percussion.

This is the fifth release in ARC Music's excellent Musical Explorers series, which aims to build a library of significant 20th-century field recordings from around the world. The CD comes with informative liner notes by Songlines editor-in-chief Simon Broughton and an enjoyable DVD filmed by Bhattacharya in 1973 at the Kenduli mela in the village of Jaydev, which was (and still is) the biggest annual gathering of Bengali Bauls.