The Musicians Kushal Das was born in a musical family in 1959. He started learning Sitar from his father Sri Sailen Das (a disciple of Pt. Lachman Bhattacharya and Pt. Ravi Shankar) and his uncle Sri Santanu Das, disciple of Ud. Ali Akbar Khan. Kushal continued to develop his artistic skills under the guidance of Prof. Sanjoy Bandopadhyay of Khairagarh, who is a disciple of Radhika Mohan Maitra. Further inspiration came from artists like Ajoy Sinha Roy, Manas Chakraborty and Ramkrishna Basu. He has participated in most of the major music conferences in India and has also performed in various countries in Europe. Kushal Das combines musical depth and maturity with imagination and enormous virtuosity. His sitar playing has a rich and melodious tone that reminds one of the late Pandit Nikhil Banerjee. Abhijit Banerjee, born in 1964, began learning Tabla at the age of four under the guidance of Shri Tushar Kanti Bose and later received guidance from Shri Manik Pal. He then became a disciple of one of the greatest Tabla teachers of this century, the late Pt. Ghyan Prakash Ghosh. Abhijit also received lessons in vocal music from Shri Ajoy Chakraborty and in violin from Smt. Annapurna Devi. Abhijit has continually participated in major music festivals in India and worldwide, both as soloist and as accompanist. He has accompanied artists like Amjad Ali Khan, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Parween Sultana etc. The late Pt. Nikhil Banerjee chose him as an accompanist on his last tour to Europe in 1984. The Music Raga Desh is a melody of the night, often also associated with the rainy season. The ascending scale of this raga is pentatonic, while all seven notes are used in the descending (Sa Re Ma Pa Ni Sa, Sa Ni Dha Pa Ma Ga Re Sa). The ascending scale is similar to raga Sarang, while the inclusion of Ga and Dha in the descending gives it a distinctive flavor. Pa and Re are important notes, but natural Ni is also sustained. The name Desh („country, province“) indicates regional roots, similar to ragas like Mand (Rajasthan) or Pahadi (Kashmir). After an extensive unaccompanied Alap which leads into the rhythmic Jor and Jhala, the Tabla joins and two compositions in slow and fast Teental (16 beats) follow. Raga Pahadi is based on a folk melody of the Kashmir region. It is essentially pentatonic, but in its Mishra (mixed) form, all 12 notes of the scale can be used. The rhythmic composition is set to Keharwa (8 beats).