Aye Ri Lagan - OUT NOW

 

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Aye Ri Lagan is finally out.

This one has been in the works for a while. What started as "this could be an interesting idea" slowly turned into a full song, a music video, several creative crises, and an unreasonable number of hours spent staring at timelines and editing software.

The basic idea was simple: take two different eras and let them coexist.

One is pre-independence India, the world of mehfils, patronage, classical music, and long evenings dedicated to art. The other is the present day, where everyone's busy, distracted, and somehow always in a hurry.

The thing connecting them is Raag Yaman.

The bandish itself was composed by my father, Pt. Tushar Chatterjee, when he was a young student of classical music. Years later, I ended up building an entire song around it. Life has a funny way of recycling good melodies.

I've wanted to release something closer to my classical roots for a long time. Aye Ri Lagan isn't a pure classical presentation, but it doesn't wander very far either. There are sargams, taans, and plenty of Yaman throughout. It takes its time and lets the music breathe.

The music video was probably the most challenging project I've worked on so far. Bringing two timelines together seemed like a great idea right up until I actually had to bring two timelines together.

Somehow, it worked.

One of my favorite parts of the project was finally collaborating with my sister, Mondrita. I've wanted to do that for years. Her Kathak performance added something to the song that I knew was missing but couldn't quite create myself.

At the end of the day, this song is about family, music, tradition, and the strange way things get passed down from one generation to another.

Mostly, though, it's a song I really wanted to make.

It's out now. Give it a listen if you'd like.

I've already started worrying about the next one.