WOMAD

Paban Das Baul

From India

The Real World Records' album, 'Real Sugar', is one of the finest culture-bridging albums of this year, bringing the mystic Bengali vocals of Paban Das Baul into a musical environment that incorporates drum'n'bass, sax and much more, skilfully orchestrated by Sam Mills, who was with avant-punksters, 23 Skidoo, in the late seventies/early eighties. 'Real Sugar' took an album of the month award in Mojo magazine this year.

The Bauls are wandering groups of players and singers whose name means "divinely possessed" and their music has been heavily featured at Rivermead over the past three years. It is a sound that is meant to disrupt daily life, to give a glimpse of what lies beneath the fabric of normal society. In the late seventies, when Paban was in Calcutta, he recognised a common bond with Western blues and jazz singers. As well he might. For the apppearance of madness, of being "touched", is important in the development of black Western styles.

American critic John Corbett, in an essay called "Brothers from Another Planet", cites Sun Ra, George Clinton and Lee "Scratch" Perry as three innovators who deliberately used outlandish wordplay, dressed bizarrely and claimed to be from another planet. Corbett writes that all this "may indicate the insanity of its maker, but it also cuts back in the other direction, suggesting the fundamental unreality of existence for those disenfranchised into poverty". As a summary of what the Bauls do, this seems pretty accurate.

Sam had been a member of the avant-garde funk/punk outfit, 23 Skidoo. In the eighties, he studied for an anthropology degree and met Paban in Calcutta. As their friendship developed, they began to explore ways of making music. In 1992, Sam organised a concert of Baul music in London, and the musicians, including Paban, were invited to give a private performance for Mick Jagger. Some fragments of studio work recorded that year also resulted in the 'Real Sugar' album.