Ektaar Music Ltd

Artists / Arnob

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Shayan Choudhury Arnob

Singer-songwriter, multiinstrumentalist, composer, painter, music- video maker
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• Received vocal training from childhood in Indian Classical music as well as Rabindrasangeet

• Trained on the tablas & esraj

• Masters in Fine Arts with outstanding results from Shantiniketan, W Bengal

• Age 27 years

• Currently resides in Dhaka with wife Sahana

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Major performances
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As part of the band Bangla Kolkata’s Jazz Festival at CONGO SQUARE 2003 Pragati Maidan Delhi 2003 Delhi Haat,New Delhi September 2005 The Institue of Fine Arts (Charukala Institute) Dhaka 2001, Solo Tara Bangla Kolkata 2003

Since April 2005 he has regularly performed at all kinds of events and venues, and his performances have been highly appreciated. Everywhere his audience inevitably starts to sing along to Mon toray (his folk cover in the Bangla album) and Shayjay boshay achhay (from CHAINA BHABISH). The latter was the subject of the longest discussion on any one song at amadergaan.com’s web-forum, stretching to 118 pages! In fact along with Habib, fellow musician affiliated to his label Ektaar, his band Bangla and wife Sahana, he is a popular as topic-of-discussion at this site

RECRODINGS

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2 songs in Bangla’s album KINKORTOBBOBIMURHA Mon toray traditional folksong & Tui gaan ga contemporary original composition with lyrics by wife Sahana	Solo album CHAINA BHABISH (?Ektaar Music 2005) released in May 2005 featuring 13 original compositions

Arnob established the band Bangla initially with friends at Shantiniketan with the sole objective to focus on Bangla folk music. Later on a visit to Shantiniketan Anusheh joined them as main vocalist giving Arnob some breathing space in the band where he functioned as its chief arranger, guitar player, vocalist. On a trip to Fakir Lalon Shain’s hometown in Kushtia, Anusheh and Arnob met up with Buno, family friend, bassist and music enthusiast. When Arnob moved back to Bangladesh the three of them began to perform together. Kartik and Shantanu joined them on guitar and drums respectively and the five of them came to form what became Bangladesh’s hot new sensation – the band BANGLA. The band’s repertoire was choc full of timeless classics and with Arnob’s sensitive arrangements and Anusheh’s spectacular voice their fame in the live circuit started spreading. In 2002 they participated in The Benson and Hedges Star Search competition where Arnob received the Award for Best Instrumentalist (for Esraj). The band shot to superstardom with the release of their first album titled Kinkortobbobimurha (?Ektaar Music 2002) that features mainly Anusheh’s vocals other than 2 songs by Arnob.

Arnob’s solo album CHAINA BHABISH (?Ektaar Music 2005) came at the heels of the sudden popularity of “Shayjay boshay achhay…” – an early composition used as the theme song for the movie Off Beat. The song’s popularity took on a different dimension when the urban underground metal band, Black (also featured in the movie), with a massive adolescent fan following, broke copyright regulations and covered the same in their debut album. Concurrently another early composition, Sporsher Bairay, that was written and sung by his wife Sahana and used as the theme song for a serialized television play became hugely popular. The unprecedented success of these two numbers brought about a resurgence of interest in the two Arnob songs on the Bangla album. As a result he came to be regarded as an unparalleled musical genius by the cultural cognoscenti even before the album’s release.

As a young newcomer, Arnob has perhaps enjoyed the most media attention ever paid to a hitherto unreleased artist. He has been interviewed in all major television talk shows as well as music programmes. Newspapers and entertainment magazines have featured his biography, interviewed him on issues ranging from the personal/musical to his opinion of general musicianship, the state of the industry, etc. Some have featured the husband-wife duo as the brightest young stars on the horizon. Almost all the major daily papers and magazines carried features on his album upon release with most giving it rave reviews.

Given Arnob’s reputation as the-most-talented-musician on the scene today, it is a hard to register his professional expertise in the visual arts where music was supposed to be just-an-interest on the side. He did the artworks on the albums Kinkortobbyobimurha and Chaina Bhabish. He has made several music videos for his band Bangla and Habib. He is currently working on videos of his own solos, as well as one for the band Ajob and one for the artist Milon Mahmood. His video of Habib’s Where’s my baby gone, (from MAYA ?Ektaar Music 2003) featuring the singers Kaya and Kunle, was nominated as 1 of 3 for the award of The Best Video Album 2004 at the Citycell-Channel-i Music Awards. It won the award for his label’s production of the video CD album Habib: The Hits Collection (?Ektaar Music, 2004). He is today easily the best music-video maker in Bangladesh – his camera work and editing skills are superlative – the sophistication and ease of his visual artistry is apparent in the light-fun appeal of his videos, esp. of Habib-tracks from the albums MAYA and MOINA GO (? Ektaar Music 2005, under license from Banglalink).

Enthralling the crowd at CHAINA BHABISH launch