Born to a Bangladeshi father and a British mother, Zoe and Idris are siblings. Zoe is a composer and pianist. She has been described in The Observer as "one of the finest piano players in Europe." Born in Chichester, UK, Zoe studied music at Oxford University and Jazz at Berklee College of Music, Boston where she had received lessons from renowned pianist JoAnne Brackeen. While in US she formed her own trio featuring bassist Joshua Davis and drummer Bob Moses. In 1999 she won the Perrier Young Jazz Musician of the Year award. Her last album, Melting Pot has been short-listed for the 2006 Nationwide Mercury Prize and has been voted 'Jazz Album of the Year' at the 2006 Parliamentary Jazz Awards.

Idris is a tenor-saxophonist, clarinettist and flutist and he also works with a band, Soothsayers.

Dhaka was the last stop of their ten-day South Asia tour organised by the British council. The duo first performed at Colombo, Sri Lanka performing an exciting melange of original and contemporary jazz compositions, instrumental arrangements of Bangla songs including their interpretations of Tagore songs in early March. During the visit, they also conducted a workshop collaborating with Sri Lankan musicians, particularly percussionists, pianists and clarinettists. Next stop was Chennai, India and finally Dhaka.

The concert on March 25 opened with instrumental renditions of the Hemanta Mukhopadhyay classic O Nodirey. The evening featured 12 renditions -- 9 instrumentals by the brother-sister duo and two featuring vocals by Ornob. Familiar tunes of Purono shei diner kotha, Muchhey jawa din guli, Tumi ele and others were presented in a refreshing, new avatar. Delightful Portuguese notes added diversity.

Ornob rendered a Tagore song Anondodhara bohichhey bhuboney and the classic Abbasuddin bhatiali, Amar haar kala korlam rey. Ornob on the traditional instrument hari, accompanied Zoe on piano during the performance of an original composition by the latter. The composition titled The Calling received a warm response from the audience. She also played a JoAnne Brackeen composition, Curved Space.

The concert wrapped up with a rendition of the hummable Happy Akhand song Abar elojey shondhya. The evening saw the brother and sister duo's endearing endeavours to approach their Bengali heritage through music.