Bolepur Bluez () is a Baul Rock fusion band from

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

, India. The band's stated goal is to recreate the traditional music of

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

, usually played by the traditional inhabitants known as

Bauls The Baul () are a group of mystic minstrels of mixed elements of Sufism and Vaishnavism from different parts of Bangladesh and the neighboring Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam's Barak Valley and Meghalaya. Bauls constitute bo ...

. Through a fusion of modern-electric 'rock' instruments with traditional acoustic sounds, Bolepur Bluez aspires to bring Baul music to international audiences. In 2010, they participated in ''

India's Got Talent India's Got Talent is a televised Indian Hindi, Hindi language talent show series and is part of the ''Got Talent franchise''. The program is produced and distributed by Fremantle (company), Fremantle and Syco Entertainment. The show aired on C ...

'', where they received a positive reception.

History

Bolepur Bluez formed in August 2010 and released their debut album, ''The Soul Connection'' in December 2011, through

EMI Records EMI Records (formerly EMI Records Ltd.) is a British multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was originally founded as a British flagship label by the music company EMI in 1972, and launched in January 1973 as the succes ...

. The album stayed on top of the charts for three months. It was nominated for the Mirchi Music Awards and the Zee Bangla Gourav Samman Awards in 2012. Bolepur Bluez was featured on television shows and on several radio talk shows. Bolepur Bluez was the first Bengali band to perform at Bacardi

NH7 Weekender NH7 Weekender is an annual, multi-city and multi-genre, music and comedy festival held in India, organised by NODWIN Gaming. It began in Pune, Maharashtra in India, as a three-day, multi-genre, music festival in 2010. Since 2012 it has expanded ...

(Red Bull Tour Bus) in Kolkata, 2013. In 2016, The band also performed at Cadbury's Mishti Fair at Salt Lake, Kolkata.

Band members

A previous band lineup was: Kartick Das Baul – Vocals, Aaron Darnal – Guitars, Ranjan Das – Bass, Kunal Kundu – Drums In August 2015, Kunal Kundu announced a band lineup of Raju Das Baul – Vocals and Khamak, Kunal Kundu – Drums, Abhijit Acharya – Vocals & Dotara / Percussion, Kushal "Tony" Kundu – Lead Guitarist, Aditya Dutta – Bass Guitar.

Music videos

The band released their first music video for the song "Hrid Majhaare," which was produced by Rooh Music. The song was recognized as one of the most beautiful and enchanting Baul/folk songs from Bengal and was covered by various artists and bands in different styles. A previous version of this track was released by

in 2011. The band released a music video depicting the love of the Hindu Gods,

Krishna Krishna (; Sanskrit language, Sanskrit: कृष्ण, ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme God (Hinduism), Supreme God in his own right. He is the god of protection, c ...

and

Radha Radha (, ), also called Radhika, is a Hindu goddess and the chief consort of the god Krishna. She is the goddess of love, tenderness, compassion, and devotion. In scriptures, Radha is mentioned as the avatar of Lakshmi and also as the Prak� ...

, inside a 150-year-old Rajbari (palace) which is now in ruins. The music video was featured on Pepsi MTV Indies. The original Hindi lyrics in this song were written by Kunal Kundu, the founder and drummer of the band.

The Soul Connection

The album was released internationally in December 2011 by

Tracks

References

{{reflist Indian musical groups Culture of Kolkata Bengali musicians Musical groups established in 2010 Indian rock music groups 2010 establishments in West Bengal