Born
in 1961 in Murshidabad, West Bengal-based Paban Das
Baul incarnates the synergy of his place of origin and
draws upon liberally to embellish his art and music
between Tantric, Vaishnava, Sufi and Buddhist cultures.
Paban plays and makes with his own hands many musical
instruments like the dubki (a sort of tambourine), khamak
(a plucking drum), dotara (a five stringed like guitar)
and various percussion instruments. The emotional beauty
of his vocals, the grace of his dancing and the improvisation
in his percussion, draws his public into a shamanic
state of trancelike instrumentation. In 1990, Paban
created ‘Antar Jantar’, a cooperative society
of destitute artisans specializing in making folk musical
instruments. Antar Jantar today provides sustenance
to twenty-five artisan families and exports instruments
to four corners of the globe through SASHA a marketing
house based in Kolkata. Today Paban Das Baul shuttles
mainly between Bengal and France, composes and collaborates
with musicians from all over the world accompanied by
Urmimala Sen, his partner. He has also worked with international
musicians - Cheick Tidiane-Seick, Marque Gilmore, JP
Rykiel and Sam Mills. His albums are TANA TANI released
world-wide by Real World Records in April 2004, Jeshto
Bhai, a jam with jazz musicians released by Gravitational
Records in Sweden in 2003 and Manouche O Ratan produced
by FONTI MUSICALI in Bruxelles 2002.
