Door Menno Pot, Volkskrant 22 december  

MORE EXCITING THAN THE MOVIES

An LP record from India is standing on the floor, resting its back against a leg of the kitchen table.  It is the soundtrack of the Bollywood film Hare Rame Hare Krishna (1972), bought in 1996 by Edo Bouman and his friend Milan Hulsing, as part of a large set of second-hand Bollywood records. The two of them were immediately struck by the beauty of the Bombay film music. ‘It was the kind of music we know from James Bond’, Bouman says; sitars, bongos, a big-band wind section and moog-synthesizers, all very weird stuff.

            Almost ten years later the first two compilations are about to be released, under their own label, Bombay Connection, one record with Funk and one with Jazz, swing and Rock-‘n-roll. These two records are the first in line of a long and prestigious series of Bollywood compilation.

            Rather bizarre actually - thinking of the cult-status Bollywood has had for quite some years now and of the Bollywood Oscars, held in Amsterdam in June of this year -why hasn’t a real good compilation of Bollywood film music been issued? A few samplers were released by the British label Outcaste, but none were as thorough as the records of the two Dutch guys of Bombay-Connection. Let it be said: These are the most fundamental Bollywood compilations ever because of its beautiful style and because it is extremely well documented. The records will be released from our own Capital Eastside just after the turn of the year.

            It started off with collecting records together, devouring enormous piles of Bollywood soundtracks. They picked the cream, travelled both to India to comb flea markets and to find record dealers in order to discover the best singers, musicians and composers: Asha Boshle, Burman, O.P. Nayyar, Kalyanji-Anandji. They found out that in most cases the music was a lot more exciting than the films, which, especially back in the old days, continuously followed the same moralistic concept.

            Milan Hulsing summarises: ‘Hero loses his head over a depraved/wicked nightclub dancer, but as soon as he gets all caught up in a criminal conspiracy, the dancer comes to his aid. She dies, and the story ends happily ever after when the hero finally hooks up with the decent village girl he turned out to be in love with all along. We see a few dancers through the trees, which symbolizes love and in the next scene the girl is pregnant.’

            Edo Bouman: ‘It struck us that the best songs of the soundtrack always belonged to the inevitable and sexy nightclub scenes or to a high-speed chase. Over and over again the orchestras surprised us with something they had never done before.’

            These songs, often a fusion of Indian and Western music, were the ones they selected for their compilations. In 2001 Edo Bouman travelled to India for four months to see for himself how the music was created and recorded. He witnessed Bollywood orchestras, which generally consisted of forty to a hundred persons, all watching the film on big screen while playing and enacting virtuoso. Six days a week, sometimes ten hours a day, the orchestras were having these virtuoso sessions.

            He also visited some composers. ‘I visited Naushad in his own home. In India he is enormously famous. People practically go down on their knees for him, the National Ennio Morricone. He received me surprisingly friendly, however slightly astonished; a Western guy who is interested in his work?’

            Edo Bouman decided to work together with the German collectors label Normal Records, who signed for production and distribution. However, he had to make sure to get his hands on the master tapes and the manufacture rights himself, without being supported financially. And so there he was, in the Saregama office, the record company formerly known as EMI India, which was the monopolist in Indian music up to 1970. From 1970 to 1980 Universal was their only competition.

            ‘I’ve been able to make some good deals,’ says Edo Bouman, who had no experience whatsoever with recording contracts, ‘especially because I repeatedly mentioned that my hobby had gotten out of hand and I pay everything myself. That helped to create sympathy.’

For the mastering, a studio technician from London helped him; however, it was again Edo Bouman who financed everything himself. Meanwhile, Edo Bouman and Milan Hulsing decided to account for the designing of the covers and booklets as well.

Normal Records pressed the record versions of the first Bombay-Connection releases. Edo Boumans last idea was to put them in original fold-out record sleeve.

Exploring and making deals in India, mastering in London, preparations for pressing records in Germany and printing covers in Eastern Europe; it was all at their own expense. Edo Bouman: ‘It was a little bit madness sometimes.’

The final result is absolutely unique and maybe most important of it all is: ‘The music deserves it.’

The Bombay Connection. Vol. 1: Funk From Bollywood Action Thrillers 1977-1984. Bombay Connection /Bertus.

Bombshell Baby Of Bombay. Vol. 2: Night Club, Jazz, Swing and R&R From Bollywood Films 1959-1972. Bombay Connection /Bertus.