Words and music, each better than the other, made the Kanika Banerjee Memorial Trust’s session, Barsha — Santiniketan, at Sisir Mancha a memorable evening. The clarity of the singers’ renditions transformed the performances, leaving the audience satisfied about a Sunday well-spent. It was heartening to see long queues before the doors of the auditorium had opened.

The conversations veered mostly around the sylvan environs of erstwhile Santiniketan where rain clouds could be seen from afar. The three primary singers and the narrator, Chaitali Dasgupta, who spent formative years witnessing such a phenomenon, wove their songs around these childhood memories. Ritopa Bhattacharya’s solo songs, “Oi je jhorer meghe” and “Aami srabano akashe oi”, evoked gentle psychedelia. She is usually all heart in rhythmless songs and this evening’s “Kothao je udhao” was no exception.

As the only male voice of the evening, Priyam Mukherjee was extroverted and high-spirited in almost all his renditions. But a word of caution: when he sings in the lower octaves, he is almost inaudible. In the higher octaves, he has a rare booming voice that is reminiscent of rolling thunder, highlighting the words of “Nilo anajana ghono punjo chhaya” and “Ei sraboner booker bhitor”.

The third singer, Ranjini Mukherjee, had moments of vulnerability in the songs, “Badalo megher madolo” and “Chhaya ghanayiche bone bone”. But her performance was uneven. One of her best offerings of the evening was “Nilanjano chhaya”, with Debayan Mazumdar on the esraj producing a flourish to heighten the key lines.

The accompanying musicians of the evening were Debashis Saha (keyboard), Swapan Adhikary (tab­la), and Amit Ranjan Ray (effects).