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PARIS to CALCUTTA - Men and Music on The Desert Road

by Deben Bhattacharya

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  • Book/Magazine

    160 pages, clothbound
    43 tracks, over 4 hours of music, all recorded in 1955 featuring music from Bedouin camps, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Jordan, Pakistan and Greece.
    45 pages of photographs
    50 pages of detailed recording notes
    Deben’s impressionistic, poetic travelogue written on the road from Paris to Calcutta in 1955
    Introductions by Jharna Bose BHattacharya, Robert Millis and WG Archer
    ships out within 5 days
    edition of 33 
    Purchasable with gift card

      $48 USD or more 

     

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about

Deben Bhattacharya (1921–2001) was a field recordist, poet, filmmaker, musicologist and amateur ethnomusicologist, based in Calcutta and Paris. Highly influential, it would not be too bold a stretch to say that his work shaped how we listen to the world: he produced a vast number of LPs, CDs, videos and radio shows of traditional music from India, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe from 1953 until his death in 2001.

Never before published, Paris to Calcutta: Men and Music on the Desert Road features over 4 hours of music and is Deben’s impressionistic account of a 1955 journey overland, in a converted milk delivery van, from France to India collecting and exploring music along the Desert Road from Europe into India.

With 4 CDs of recordings, photographs, Deben’s original recording notes, musical transcriptions and more. An amazing glimpse into a time long gone and essential listening for anyone interested in folk and world music traditions.

"Actually, I think my playing is probably more derived from the folk music records that I heard; Middle Eastern music, Indian music...for years I had something called 'Music On The Desert Road', which was an album with all kinds of different ethnic music. I used to listen to that all the time." --Frank Zappa, 1993 (from an interview in Guitarist Magazine, talking about an LP released by Deben in 1956 using a few edited versions of the music included on this compilation.).

credits

released November 1, 2018

Produced and edited by Robert Millis (Indian Talking Machine and Victrola Favorites).

PHOTO: Deben Bhattacharya recording in Afghanistan, 1955

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about

Sublime Frequencies Seattle, Washington

SUBLIME FREQUENCIES is a collective of explorers dedicated to exposing obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers via film and video, field recordings, radio and short wave transmissions, international folk and pop music, sound anomalies, other forms of human and natural natural expression not documented sufficiently enough by various communication channels. ... more

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