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Parapar is an Anglo-Bengali band with members in Kolkata and London. Their music is built around the voice of singer-songwriter Moushumi Bhowmik and draws its repertoire both from Moushumi’s own compositions and the rich folk heritage of Bengal.
The band aims to stress the continuity between diverse musical traditions - kirtan, bhatiyali, adhunik, the blues and both Indian and Western classical music - blending them into a subtle and distinctive musical language. They also draw upon folk material collected by Moushumi from West Bengal, Assam and Bangladesh. As of 2008, the lineup consists of Moushumi Bhowmik (Vocals), Oliver Weeks (Guitar), Ros Acton (Cello), Ben Hillyard (Bass), Ed Snow (Drums) and Satyaki Banerjee (Dotara- guest member).
Parapar was formed in 2002 when a mutual friend suggested Oliver as as a possible collaborator for Moushumi, at that point living in the UK and in search of suitable musicians to work with. The two began working with a mixture of Moushumi’s own compositions and traditional Bengali folk music, playing their first gigs as a duo in early 2003.
The two recorded a six-track demo in 2003. As well as new material, the demo featured re-recordings of
Shopno dekhbo bolay and Jessore Road alongside Baul and Bhaowaia songs.
In January 2004, they were joined by Ros, a friend of Oliver’s from the Royal Academy of Music for a gig at the London School of Economics and the band was further expanded for later that year with the addition of Ben, who had played with Oliver in several bands before.
2004 also saw Parapar’s first Indian gigs, including several in Kolkata and West Bengal. A concert at the Kolkata British Council paved the way for a larger tour of West Bengal and Bangladesh in 2005 with the full band, playing for the first time under the name of Parapar. The concerts were enthusiastically received by the media and public in both India and Bangladesh, selling out Kolkata’s Gyan Manch concert hall and Dhaka’s British Council several times over. In Kolkata, the band was further expanded by the addition of Satyaki. The concerts in Dhaka also saw collaborations with Shopon Mian on the dhol, the late Abinash Shil on dotara and Bangladeshi folk singer Kananbala Sarkar.
In 2006 and 2007, Parapar played two further concert series in London, adding drummer Ed Snow to the lineup. The band expects to record its first album in London early in 2009. With Moushumi living mainly in Kolkata and the other band members being based in London they have had to creative in finding methods of continuing to work together. A 2007 documentary on Parapar by Kolkata's Debanjan Banerjee entitled Bridging My Home tells the story of the coming together of the band despite, and also because of, the distances of land and language.
“The result was not “fusion” in the popular (and usually banal) sense of the word for authentic music is always already “fused”...there is something intense and actual about the human sound of stringed instruments that matches the intellectually complex, often heart-breaking inwardness of Moushumi's singing.” Aveek Sen, The Telegraph, Kolkata, 6 May 2005
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