Nearest Neighbor – Flute and Synthesizer

 These days, playing flute tones on a synthesizer has become more a norm than an exception. However, what Raja does is different – he places a synthesized flute beside a real one as its neighbor and creates a brilliant combination.

The clip below has three tracks. The first track is from the interlude of the song, ‘Kathirum Kothi’ from ‘Man of the Match’ (Malayalam 1996). The first 9 seconds are with synthesized flute and violins playing in harmony, at least 3 melodies. From 9 seconds onwards, the bamboo flute takes over and plays an Indian melody for about 10 seconds. The final passage between 19 and 22 seconds is a harmony bridge to the charanam. Keeping synthesized flute beside a bamboo flute requires some boldness and this comes easy to a composer, who can create melodies effortlessly.

The second track is the interlude of the popular 80s track, ‘Un Paarvaiyil’ from ‘Amman Kovil Kizhakaale’ (1986 Tamil). This track uses the synthesizer in the bells mode and is initially and towards the end of the clip arranged as a C&R.  The middle parts are arranged as a pure flute track. This is the flute synthesizer format of Raja that has been replicated by all composers who made their debut after him. This is one NN that is very prevalent in film music.

The third track is from the interlude of the song, ‘Shenbagame Shenbagame (Sunanda/Mano version) from 'Enga Ooru paatukaaran’ (Tamil 1988). Between 55 and 1:00 minute on the clip, you will hear the synthesizer and flute on a C&R arrangement. With tones being very close, except the synthesizer plays discrete notes. From 1:05 to 1:21, the arrangement is a beautiful PolyCaRe arrangement of three instruments, the background melody being played by the guitar with the synthesizer and the flute playing foreground call and response arrangement. 

Let’s hear these Nearest neighbors – Flute and synthesizer…