Interactive music platform for revellers this Puja

Kolkata: Two popular Durga Puja pandals will reverberate with music from a unique digital platform this year, as part of the ‘Mix the City Kolkata’ project, an initiative of the British Council.

“A ‘Mix the City kiosk’ will come up at the ‘75 Palli’ Puja where the puja revellers will be able to listen to a collage of 12 different genre musical pieces created by as many musicians, and can even make their own audio-visual compositions which can be shared on social network,” director British Council, Dr. Debanjan Chakrabarti told PTI here.

The ‘75 Palli’ puja in south Kolkata, having London as its theme on the 70th year of Indo-British cultural ties, has made arrangements with ‘London Sharad Utsav’ at Ealing in West London with the help of the British Council, for showing the inauguration of the Kolkata puja live at the London Sharad Utsav venue.

The ‘Mix the City’ kiosk will also be set up at the puja in Ealing, where the Bengali diaspora can relive the nostalgia of Kolkata and feel closer home, Dr. Chakrabarti said.

In North Kolkata’s ‘Ahiritola Sarbojonin Durgotsab’, the theme is ‘Srishtir Melbondhon’ (Creative Collaboration), where the ‘Mix the City’ video and audio loops will be played as revellers approach the puja.

Twelve musicians from Kolkata have provided the different musical tracks, which have been curated by acclaimed songwriter and producer Kutiman in the ‘Mix the City’ project of British Council.

The musicians include percussionist Pt Tanmoy Bose, vocalist Kaushiki Chakraborty, bass player and composer Mainak ‘Bumpy’ Nag Chowdhury, among others, Dr. Chakrabarti added.