Moushumi Bhowmik (vocals) is a singer, songwriter, author and ethnomusicologist currently based in Kolkata, India. Between 1994 and 2001 she wrote and recorded three albums of original songs, which were released on the HMV and Times Music labels. Her songs, especially Ami shunechhi sedin (aka Shopno dekhbo bole) and Jessore Road have acquired huge popularity amongst Bengali listeners in Bangladesh, India and the UK diaspora. She also composes music for Bengali documentary and art cinema, including the film Matir Moina (The Clay Bird, dir. Tareque Masud) which won the Critics’ Prize at Cannes in 2002. Her original soundtrack for this film won the Best Music prize at Kara Film Festival, Karachi in 2003.
Moushumi’s research focuses on expressions, in Bengal’s folk music, of separation and longing (biroho) in the context of the region's long history of migration. Other themes include orality and tradition, continuity and change in folk music, gender, authorship and performance, mapping and landscaping through music. Over the past ten years, she has carried out fieldwork in West Bengal and Assam, Bangladesh and the expatriate Bengali community in London. One of the outcomes of this research, in addition to the selected publications listed below, is a series of comprehensive field recordings documenting disappearing musical traditions and rare folk songs, which have been placed with the British Library Sound Archives’ World and Traditional Music Section and the Archives and Research Centre for Ethnomusicology in Gurgaon, India.
She is currently working on www.thetravellingarchive.org (under construction), a website documenting ten years of folk-song research, with support from Ford Foundation.
In 2006 she was a Visiting Research Fellow at Goldsmiths College, University of London (Anthropology Department), and since then she has been teaching courses on folk music at universities in India and Bangladesh, including Delhi University, Jadavpur University (Kolkata), the Indian Institude of Management (Bangalore) and BRAC University (Dhaka). She is continually engaged in performing and delivering lectures on her research including, in the UK, appearances at Oxford and Edinburgh Universities and SOAS.Recent press articles:
“Moushumi Bhowmik: Music erases boundaries”. In The Daily Star, April 9, 2009. Dhaka
“Songs from Sylhet and elsewhere”. In The Pioneer, April 4, 2009. New Delhi
“Trio's tryst with music touches Sylhet, Faridpur, London”. In The Telegraph April 13, 2006. Calcutta
Discography
| 2002 | L’Oiseau D’Argile: Bande Originale du Film. Paris: MK2. Music from Bangladeshi film Matir Moina (The Clay Bird) by Tareque Masud, including original background score composed by Moushumi Bhowmik. |
| 2001 | Aami Ghar Baahir Kori. Bombay: Times Music. CD and audiotape. Ten songs on the theme of home and freedom. |
| 2000 | Akhono Golpo Lekho. Bombay: Times Music. CD and audiotape. Ten songs including Jessore Road based on Allen Ginsberg's poem September on Jessore Road. |
| 1994 | Tumio Cheel Hao. HMV. Audiotape. Debut album with ten songs. |
Selected publications:
| (forthcoming) | Songs of Love and War: Migration of Myth and Melody in the Folk Music of Bengal. Monograph. Kolkata: Jadavpur University |
| (forthcoming) | “Shah Abdul Korimer Bhab O Abhaber Gaan.” Essay on the folk poet of Sylhet, Abdul Korim, to appear in an as-yet-unnamed anthology of essays and memoir on the poet. Sylhet: Boipotro |
| (forthcoming) | “Madly in Love: On a Trail of Singers and Songs of Separation.” In Convergences of Sufism and Bhakti (working title). New Delhi: Orient Blackswan |
| 2008 | Women in Concert: An Anthology of Bengali Muslim Women's writings 1904-1938. Bhowmik, Moushumi & Akhtar, Shaheen eds., Calcutta: Stree |
| 2007 | “I Hear the Drums Roll: Lessons in the Art of Listening”. In ArtsConnect, vol.1, no.1, July-December 2007. Bangalore: IFA |
| 2006 | “Moving with the Song: Loss and Longing in the Migrations of Bengal”. Paper and audio presentation as part of an online publication on Sound and Migration from a conference held jointly by the University of St Andrews, Scotland and the London College of Communication. |
| 2006 | Nepali Byanger Abhijan. Bengali translation of Kanak Mani Dixit's Adventures of a Nepali Frog. New Delhi: National Book Trust, New Delhi |
| 2000 | Tottochan.Bengali translation of Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's classic memoir of childhood. New Delhi: National Book Trust |
| 1998 | Zenana Mehfil: Bangali Musalman Lekhikader Nirbachita Rachana 1904-1938. Bhowmik, Moushumi & Akhtar, Shaheen eds., Calcutta: Stree |
| 1996 | Babuier Pakhira. Stories in Bengali for children. Kolkata: Punascha |
“There are no more towering Tagores, Rays and Shankars at the moment. But there are singers like Moushumi Bhowmik whose study, practice and remoulding of Bengal folk traditions has produced some of the most astounding music.” Vikram Iyengar, Tehelka, The People's Paper, 1 Oct 2005
“There was little doubt in the jury's mind that the Ciepie for Best Musical Score should go to none other than Moushumi Bhowmik for the evocation of Bangla folk melodies melded perfectly to the visuals of The Clay Bird.” Karachi International Film Festival, 2003
“Haunting, disturbing and relevant. Those who have heard Bhowmik can only remain silently grateful to the singer for not kowtowing to a commercial god.” Rupali Ghosh, The Hindu, 1 Sep 2002