A platform for contemporary musicians

“I have been in the music industry for 30 years now, and in that time, I have practically seen the industry be born, grow, and then go astray. And I hope we live to see the day when we see artistes are being rewarded; that good people have come to the industry and cleaned it up”, said Shafin Ahmed, a Bangladeshi rock music icon of sorts. He is the latest addition (upon his own interest) to “Ek Nirjhorer Gaan”, a project of contemporary music of an unprecedented scale. A total of 101 songs are in the compilation, sung by 43 artistes and arranged by nine composers. It includes names as senior as Naquib Khan to as young as Sovvota, from as familiar as Bappa Majumder to as unexpected as advertising agency giant Gausul Alam Shaon: all of what started as architect-filmmaker Enamul Karim Nirjhor's practice of songwriting. He wrote and composed all the songs.

The news of the grand launch of “Ek Nirjhorer Gaan” and surfacing of the organisation Gaanshala, set for June 12, was revealed at a casual gathering of the artistes and organisers at Nirjhor's residence on Wednesday. An emotional Nirjhor spoke about this project that he started from the thought of a platform for contemporary singers and musicians' fight for their rights, respect and remuneration. He also mentioned that it has been a long journey that began in 2007, and termed to have seen 101 songs being ready (with a few numbers pre-released in audio and video already) a special moment.

A number of musicians and composers in attendance – including Naquib Khan, Fahmida Nabi, Shampa Reza and Chandana Mazumder – also echoed the idea of musicians coming together and having a common platform, so they could stand strong against corporations who reap all the fruit from the artistes' hard work. “Artistes are our heroes,” said Nirjhor, adding that the launching of the album will be themed on that, with some new unique ideas.

ABC Radio is the radio partner for the album and they are already broadcasting the released songs, which are also available on social media sites like YouTube and Facebook.