Notun Kobor, Notun Gaan, Notun Kore Rabindra Sangeet

Shahana at the launch of her début album

The long awaited début album by Shahana Bazpeyi was finally released yesterday!

Titled Notun Koreh Pabo Boleh, translated very badly means, To Have It Anew. The album is a remake of some of Rabindranath Tagore's classic songs, known as Rabindra Sangeets.

The aim of the album is to bring a more contemporary sound to Rabindra Sangeets. Currently Bazpeyi thinks Rabindara Sangeets are too astute or too "lullaby-like". The idea behind the album is to re-introduce Rabindra Sangeet to the younger audience in a way they can relate to it.

The album consists of ten songs, one of which is a duet with her husband, Arnob - both of whom studied at the Tagore college of Shantiniketan. Arnob composed most of the music on the album and he himself has plans to release a similar version of Rabindra Sangeets in the future (listen to interview here).

The album is only available in Bangladesh and even then it's only available in Dhaka. So it may be a while before I get the opportunity to have a listen (and review) - need an illegal maestro to carry out the deed. In the meantime, we just have to be content with knowing the album has finally been released. It's been a very long wait. Over a year in fact.

Update: Arnob has no plans to release a Rabindra Sangeet album - this was revealed to me by Shahana herself. A shame as I think Arnob's version would have been just as popular and liked, particularly his rendition of majeh majeh which, he sang at the South Bank couple of years ago - 'twas a brilliant night out...

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