essay – Page 2 – The Travelling Archive

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শুভ সাধুসঙ্গ
লয়ে সঙ্গপঙ্গ
বন বিহঙ্গ
প্রসন্ন করিলে।

Just as it is not enough to write about sound with words and signs only, it also seems not enough to present sound as sound. How to talk about the thoughts which come out of listening? In this section we are keeping a selection of published and unpublished essays written by us and friends, broadly on themes of field recording, listening, collecting and archiving.

Sonic Symphony.

‘Sonic Symphony’, by Sukanta Majumdar in Lensight, quarterly journal of FTII, special issue on reality and imagination, edited by Rajula Shah.. 2017.

Songs from a Tide-Swept Land.

‘Songs from a Tide-Swept Land’ by Moushumi, in Jamini, international art journal published by Bengal Foundation in Dhaka. 2017.

Travelling alone, but not quite.

মৌসুমী ভৌমিক, ‘এইখানে কীভাবে এসে পৌঁছলাম আমি?’। সুমিতা বীথি সম্পাদিত ‘একলা মেয়ের ঘোরাঘুরি’ (কলকাতা: লা স্ত্রাদা, ২০২৫) সংকলনের অন্তর্গত।

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Notice Board

Sushoma Das has passed. She lives here with us.
Sushoma Mashima

Workshop on the Archive as a Knowledge Site, 2-3 Feb 23, Jadavpur University
Moushumi will present at a workshop on THE ARCHIVE AS A KNOWLEDGE SITE: THE EXPERIENCE OF EUROPE AND INDIA, Organised by SCTR, JU in association with CNRS, France and IRN-AITIA.

Artiste at TIFR, 20-24 May 2022
Moushumi spent five days with students and teachers of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai and also spoke at the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education. Her main talk was on The Travelling Archive https://sites.google.com/view/artiste-at-the-institute/about

Presenting on Baba Betar internet radio

Songs Grow Out of the Land
Audio essay, 66 min. Moushumi, hosted by Arfun Ahmed. 13 February 2021, 8pm BDT, 7:30pm IST, 2pm UK.
www.chobimela.org

Shibaditya Sen

We mourn the passing of Shibda, Shibaditya Sen (1952-2018), our teacher in Santiniketan. Gone too soon, and another light has faded out of our sky.
Read more in our tribute page

Third album from Travelling Archive Records

Salamot bhai

Salamat Khan (Salamot bhai as we called him) passed away at dawn on 12 August 2015. He was so essential to our world, yet so much like a bird impossible to catch. Forever uncaged and uncageable. His death to us is like the last visible flight which he has taken. As if he had a sharp beak with which he pierced the sky and once he went in, the sky closed itself upon us. We lesser mortals were left below looking skywards, our hearts filled with longing for a little bit more.

The Travelling Archive in East London

Chandrabati Roy Barman (1931-2014)

We grieve the passing of Chandrabati mashima. At the same time we feel blessed to have known her through this last decade of her life, although it seems like too short a time now.. Chandrabati mashima opened for us new worlds of listening and understanding music. Also new ways of understanding what it is to be a woman and an artist. There is much to learn from the utshaho--her boundless energy and courage--which was seemingly at the root of everything she did and dared to do. When we first heard her in 2006, we felt sure that this music would travel. It did indeed. Mashima was always loved in her own land, but when she came to our Baul Fakir Utsav in Kolkata in 2010, she won the hearts of thousands more. Now young singers of the city are singing some of her songs--dhoirojo na dhorite, pari na shohite, onurage tonu jhore --which they have picked up from the Utsav's CDs, also from our recordings perhaps. As they sing, we hope they will remember that it is Chandrabati Roy Barman who gave them to us. Our own CD of her and Sushoma Das' songs and conversation from Travelling Archive Records has been received with critical appreciation by many, crossing boundaries of language and culture. Slowly the music seeps in; music made of songs and conversation, everyday sounds and silences. As we listen, the image of the artist comes alive. Some do not die, they only make a transition.

Remembering Sadek Ali

Sadek Ali of Faridpur, Bangladesh sold grains for his living, but lived for his songs. As a child he followed the folk poet Jasimuddin around wherever he went and the poet’s shadow seemed to hang on him for the rest of his life. Every time he sang for us, he would religiously mention that he had spent 45 years with Jasimuddin. There was a framed photograph of Jasimuddin on the wall of his shop in Faridpur market. Sadek Ali not only sang for us but also generously organised recording sessions in the space of his house, first in 2006 and then again in 2008. Last time we went to see him in 2011, Sadek Ali bhai was lying semi-paralysed in bed having suffered a stroke some months ago. He passed away in 2013.

Nimai’s dotara falls silent

Nimai Chand Goswami, the baul musician who passed away on 14 June 2014, was on our first ever field recording session. Moushumi had been to his house in Suripara, Bolpur in November 2003 with Sudheer Palsane, who recorded the session on a Sony PD 150 DV camera, even before the first IFA grant was announced. They went unannounced and Nimai was generous enough to let them in; he played music and talked about his life, mixing reality with fiction. The reason for this early visit was the sound of Nimai's eloquent dotara, we hadn't yet heard much, but Nimai was among the few things which occupied us in that preparatory phase. We had heard him on albums released in Europe with Paban Das Baul, such as Manuche O Rautan. Later Nimai had taken Moushumi to meet Kalpana Dasi and Shyamsundar Das Baul of Masadda, also in Birbhum. One place led to another, from one recording session we went to the next. As the initial years passed and we began to gather experience, we did not go back to Nimai any more; only met him occasionally at melas and festivals, also at our own Baul Fakir Utsav. But it is not easy to forget the sound of Nimai's dotara--not for its virtuosity, but because it was deeply affecting. Coincidentally, the first text in Bangla on the top of our Home page, is from a song we had heard Nimai sing. When we chose those lines about the power of listening, little did we know that Nimai's dotara would fall silent so soon.