Music Beyond Boundaries merges world music with Bangla folk

Music cannot be defined by boundaries. Beyond all borders and barriers, there exists a place where culminates all kinds of music. That is the philosophy that drives this musical outfit called Music Beyond Boundaries, conceived by Prabuddha Banerjee and Upali Chattopadhyay.
Their debut concert, hosted at ICCR last Friday, was a reflection of that very take, as music and tunes from the world over found a place in their oeuvre, seamlessly merging into Bengal’s folk music.
The concert started off with a bunch of young girls, headed with Urmimala Basu, presenting a piece based on Baishnab Padabali and Bangla loksangeet. Up next, Biswanath Das baul along with Teertha Bhattacharya gave in to an encore request from the audience. MBB comprising Prabuddha, Upali, Ratul Shankar, Biplav Singh, Shantanu Musafir, Bodhisattwa Bannerjee, Dhrubo Basu Roy and Satyaki Banerjee, took to stage next with their canon of folk ballads from various corners of the world, English and Bangla alike. Songs like Johnny Cash’s How high is the water mama found a perfect counterpart in Bosundhorari buke boroshar-i dhara. Music director Raja Narayan Deb, who was present at the do, was seen swaying to the fluid beats of the songs. “Conceptually, it was a very rich programme. The merging of different styles of music apart, I loved the way Prabuddhada turned the do into something very informal, almost like an adda session,” he said.