Reviving Folk songs: Jambili | Artist Shoutout

Jambili is a folk – rock band that was formed mainly to preserve and bring back the long forgotten Karbi folk songs that were almost forgotten by the people of Diphu in Assam.

Daniel Engty Kathar of Excruciator fame is the force behind Jambili. He brought together a few friends and formed the band in 2007. Though there have been many band members who have come and gone, the current line-up comprises of Daniel Engty and four others.

Daniel recalls how the band came into being when in 2007 he accompanied some scholar friends who were recording folk songs and stories for archiving and research purpose to the rural part of our district and found that only few elderly people knew their folk songs and many of them didn't even know the complete versions of many songs which meant the extinction of the cultural songs which had no written or recorded preservation.

“Jambili repackaged the age old traditional Karbi folk songs with modern equipments and sounds. That’s how Jambili got ensembled and played its first gig in Diphu the same year in the famous Roots Music Fest of Northeast India”.
Jambili uses traditional locally made instruments, plays fusion of only Karbi folk songs and music, though on many occasions they have also performed Bhupen Hazarika classics and Bihu in their own style.

Their first song to be recorded was a single Drums Struggle Movement. Though they've not released any full length album as of yet, they have songs like Kingchili Liberation Front (a song protesting the use of Kingchili gas to put on protesters in place of rubber bullets) and Kaziranga (protest song against the poaching of the rare one horned rhino in Kaziranga National Park).

In 2018 they were selected alongside 5 other bands from North East India to record two tracks for a compilation album 'Brahmaputra Raga Jazz'. In February 2020, they released Dei Arnam (a prayer of the Karbi pagan faith). Most of their songs are protest songs and involves myths, spiritualism, brotherhood, nature, peace and justice to address Karbi culture and tradition in its lyrics.

⬇ Jambili in Brahmaputra Raga Jazz Gig:

⬇ Root Folkways 2018 | Jambili Band:

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