Popular Bangladeshi cover musician Masha Islam recently collaborated with Studio Lonthon -- a production company promoting independent artists and content creators from Bangladesh -- in their recent video. Masha, who rose to fame with her YouTube channel last year, covered Frank Sinatra’s “Fly Me To The Moon” in the eighth episode of Traffic Jamming Session, a regular unplugged live cover segment of Studio Lonthon.
The young Nazrul Geeti graduate from Chhayanaut Sangeet Bidyayatan told the Dhaka Tribune’s Showtime: “This was my take on ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ by Frank Sinatra. I have many inspirations. I loved Studio Lonthon’s contents and their unique and fun way of presenting artists of all kinds. They are creative and unique. I am usually very choosy about whom I will work with but never had to worry about a thing while working with them. Art is everywhere around us and the hard work of these talented bunch reflects that. Their contents are simple yet elegant and artistic. And independent artists like us have the similar mindset as them so collaborating with them is a blast.”
When asked about her future goals Masha replied: “First of all I want to be a decent human being. I want to move forward with my music. A lot of musicians have influenced and inspired me throughout my life and I have a lot of goals to achieve. I want to make my original music soon and also want to represent Bangladesh and its glory throughout the globe.”
Aunindo Ishrak, creative director, one of the co-founders of the company and a recent business grad from the University of Dhaka’s Institute of Business Administration (IBA) said: “At Studio Lonthon, we try to shed light on things of beauty, things which please our senses, things we consider as art. Traffic Jamming Session is an effort by us in similar vein where the artists voice enmeshes with the nuances of the sounds of this city.”
“We are a group of youngsters collaborating with independent artists, musicians, content creators and filmmakers around the country to curate and promote their content,” added Ishrak.
Studio Lonthon was founded by Zamil Rahman Jishan back in 2012 to promote promising artists, musicians, content creators, and filmmakers who are not featured in the mainstream media. Jishan, a student of Jahangirnagar University’s Archaeology Department, met an untimely death by drowning in the campus pond on May 24, 2016.
Since his demise the company has stuck to its original vision and collaborated with numerous artists, musicians, and filmmakers around the country.
They have recently also completed the post-production of two feature-length independent films: Razib Ahsan’s 1971 Liberation War film “Namhin Gotrohin” and Kazi Mahadi Muntasir’s “The Grim Kite.”
