*Daniel Schell & Sandip Banerjee have just released their new album "Greenbirth", after 3 years of work in concert and studio.*

This duet  brings the music of selected contemporary composers, Indian as Ashok Pathak or Dhruba Ghosh, and of course Daniel Schell's, to a larger public of "New Music" lovers. The trio explores also the music of great Indian Composers of the past like Bathkande, Gulam Ali Khan and,  recently, transcriptions of South Indian Bharat Natyam Music. These transcriptions are made by Daniel Schell who  composes  under the 'Indian ear ' of Sandip Banerjee.

In their new album 'Green Birth' the duet has choosen to explore other ways. They play in the Hindustani style, but with much freedom. Daniel has signed the compositions, some originals, some arrangements of classical themes. Sandip reaches the fronteers of the tabla, by playing with new 'taala-s' and expressions..
'Green Birth' is entirely based on raaga bhim palasii, a famous afternoon raaga. For Daniel it meant the birth of a young plant in the warm moisture of the forest. The pieces are thought as a symphony, sometimes following the rules, sometimes wandering around, through harmonies. Daniel also created a raaga 'haraa aasha', 'green birth', which illustrates this atmosphere.
In their first album 'Night in the Mountain' the duet went through night melodies, by selected contemporary Indian composers as Ashok Pathak, Dhruba Ghosh, or classical as Bathkande.

From the instrumentation point of view, this is really an important and pioneering attempt to bring the tiptar, (or tap-guitar) in the world of Indian music. The tiptar is a 12-strings sort of tap guitar tapped with the tip of the fingers and which allows therefore hands independency. Normally this is not an Indian instrument but one should not forget that India imported many occidental instruments as the violin or the harmonium. Furthermore there are now a number of mandoline and guitar players in India. The other rhytmician is Sandip Banerjee, a talented tabla player from Calcutta who has accompanied artists as Tejendro Majumdar, Bhuddaditya Mukherjee, Baran Kumar Pal and Kushal Das. Daniel and Sandip have collaborated in projects as the Sangit Summer Seminar and a new tabla  method book.

The duet invites European guest artists as Ariane De Bievre or Fabrice de Graef (bansuri) and it has been accompanying Indian masters as Kala Ramnath, Harsh Wardhan or Purbayan Chattterjee.

Discography: CD:

Night in the Mountain , ClicMusic
New Greenbirth, Clic Music	excerpts:	Phytia	Greenbirth

Book : 'The Tabla' (In French, published by ID Music, Paris - In English to be published soon in India)