Bondona

On the strength of their 2015 debut album Khiyo were nominees in the best group category at the Songlines Music Awards. Seven years on and the Bengali-fusion outfit centred on singer Sohini Alam and guitarist Oliver Weeks provide a follow-up. Opener ‘Aajke Shaadi’ appears to be making up for lost time. Bombastic brass and funk guitar adorn a rock reinvention of a song by Nazrul, the revered national poet of Bangladesh.

Other styles are evoked with considerable compositional flair. ‘Ek Jomuna’ catapults us into hard riffin’ metal, while ‘Ghoro Ghono Ghota’ is an epic ballad that could anchor a modern musical. The latter demonstrates the emotional power of Alam’s voice, which rises and falls in tandem with an intense string accompaniment. The English folk influence present on the more low-key numbers is perhaps the most compelling complement to the Bengali core. Weeks’ inventive guitar work on ‘Riniki Jhiniki’ could be mistaken for Nic Jones or Martin Carthy were it not for the subtle shifts into Eastern harmony. Bondona is an embarrassment of riches containing plenty of surprise, delight and depth.