The Sixties onwards, it degenerated into a cacophonous mix of saxophone riffs and thrums on the guitar shaken but not stirred with vocals and tabla beats.

Now, save the language that vaguely resembles the vernacular many of us are familiar with, Bengali songs sound more like Seventies' rock and pop than anything else.

Moushumi Bhowmik was a trendsetter. She was one of the first musicians who composed and sang her own lyrics. Although she had a sonorous and dignified voice, and in spite of having a steady fan following, her rather unfortunate experiences with recording companies hampered her career as a musician.

Then, about seven years ago, she went to live in London with her family, and met guitarist Oliver Weeks at Cambridge University, where she had gone to perform and where he studied. Weeks, who studies composition at the Royal Academy of Music, was already familiar with baul music from Santiniketan and a little Rabindrasangeet.

Weeks introduced Moushumi to Ben Hillyard, also from Cambridge, who plays the double bass in jazz bands and with English folk music. He initially "joined out of curiosity".