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Fabulous world-renowned BAUL singer, working with international musicians:
Sam Mills, Cheick Tidiane-Seick, Jonny Wartel, Marque Gilmore, Jean-Philippe Rykiel, Susheela Raman, State of Bengale ...

Born in 1961 in Murshidabad, Paban Das Baul incarnates the synergy of his place of origin: between Tantric, Vaishnava, Sufi and Buddhist cultures which he draws upon liberally to embellish his art and music.

Since childhood, he is celebrated in Bengal for the emotional beauty of his vocals and his genius of improvisation in percussion, of drawing his public into his shamanic states of trancelike instrumentation and the grace of his dancing.

Paban plays and makes with his own hands many musical instruments, the dubki- a sort of tambourine, the khamak – a plucking drum, the dotara – a 5 stringed lute and various percussion instruments. In 1990, Paban created Antar Jantar, a cooperative society of destitute artisans specialising 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 et collaborates with musicians from all over the world accompanied by Urmimala Sen, his partner.

BAULSPHERE by Mimlu Sen (Book edited on Random House India, 2009) Baulsphere takes you into the heart of rural Bengal, and into the fascinating world of the Bauls. more info> Baulsphere on Facebook

Ongoing projects:

- a collaboration with Urmimala Sen writing the songs and the music for a feature film BLACK MARIA based on the history of music of Calcutta and its hinterlands to be shot in autumn 2006.

- a collaboration with Cheick Tidiane Seck from Mali and Urmimala Sen on some sufi texts taking baul music in a new direction, towards Mandingue music and jazz

- the creation of a workshop based school of baul music and a production unit for Antar Jantar in the village of Lohagarh in Birbhum


Recent 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.

Paban Das Baul - Inner Knowledge (Womad Select - 1997)

Paban Das Baul & Sam Mills - Real Sugar (Real World - 1997)

Paban Das Baul, Gour Khepa, Nimai Goswani & Mimlu Sen - Manuche O Rautan: Le Chant des Bâuls (Fonti Musicali, Brussels - 2002)

Paban Das Baul & Jonny Wartel (Gravitation - 2003)

Paban Das Baul & State of Bengal - Tana Tani (Real World - 2004)

Paban Das Baul - 'Live' at Satellit Cafe Paris (2008)

Compilations

- Chants des Fous: Bengale (Chants du Monde - 1979)

- Le Chant Mystique des Bauls (Sonodisc ESP)

- Les Musiciens Bauls “ Fous de Dieu” (Disques Arion - 1983)

- Bauls Des Fous de l’Absolu (Sonodisc - 1989)

- Chants d'initiation Bauls (Buda Musique - 1992)

- Voices of the Real World (Real World - 2000)

Collaborations

- Marque Gilmore /Drum-FM - Creation Step (Tribal Broadcast - 2003)

- The Katia Labèque Band - Unspoken (KLM - 2003)

- Cheick-Tidiane Seck - MandinGroove (Sunnyside Records - 2004)

- Paul Mills - The Other Side Of The Glass (IUS - 2006)

Filmography

- Le Chant des Fous (Doc. Georges Luneau, Antenne 2 - 1980)

- Vagabunden Karawane / Vagabond's Band (Doc. by Embryo (german band) - 1980)

- Nagmoti (fiction: Gautam Chatterjee, Kolkata - 1972)

- La Nuit Bengali (Nicolas Klotz France - 1988)

- Egaro Miles (doc Ruchir Joshi – Channel Four / prix Joris Ivans Centre Pompidou in France - 1992)

- Bhalobasha O Andhokar (Gautam Chatterjee - 1995)

- Faut pas rêver (Doc.FR 3 - Frederic Zoltan/ Dominique Rabotteau - 1999)