Joler Gaan - Topic

“We are the children of the soil where the river purifies us. We whisper the symphonies of this genre in soft and soothing voices. Dark at night our dreams express themselves on a sailing boat in a land of natural abundance. To us the rivers are like lives flowing away undeterred. And sometimes they are poignant features of our ethnic roots. We sail away in the world of fantasy and imagination. We aspire to know why the bird sings, why the sprinkling of water sounds harmonious. With questions like these churning in our minds we hum the tunes and sing Joler Gaan in unhindered voices.”

Jol is water in Bangla. We took the inspiration for the name from the 1300 rivers that crisscrossed our country. In Bangladesh, water controls our lives and livelihood. So we believe as the son of this soil our spiritual and emotional awareness was originated from water, thus we are Joler Gaan, music of the water. Ours is a band group dominated by visual artists and theatre activists. Many wonders, why we took a turn to music. We felt music has more opportunity as a medium to express the freedom of mind and also to touch souls. People can connect to music more than they can connect to any other form of art. It all began in Scotland when Rahul, Kanak, Jarnal and Kaartik went participate in World Sufi Festival, 2006. We performed in various places in Scotland, played mystical spiritual songs of Tagore, Lalan and few of our own songs. We also performed in National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.