“There’s music in everything around us — be it nature, washing clothes, cooking food or even walking. Everything happens in a rhythm, you can either find it musical, or it won’t strike a chord, but you can’t really ignore it,” says singer-composer and arranger Rathijit Bhattacharjee. Any sound that is soothing to our ears is music for us — this is what struck him when he began creating and recreating songs.
Rathijit, the second runner-up at a Bengali reality show of which he is a mentor now, has completed almost 10 years as a music composer. He recreates music using kitchen tools, parts of a car, combs, and even a grinding stone. During the pandemic, he recreated a version of Amay Dubaili Re, Amay Bhashaili Re, using such instruments. “You can create music even when you try to deep fry your favourite pakoras. You just need to have an ear to find those hidden treasures. It is like utilising foley to create music. Foley has always attracted me. They have a rhythm. We just need to channelise it into creating music. I have plans to incorporate more of these sounds into music and rearrange songs. I am researching and working on the soundscapes in nature and want to compose a piece in which I won’t use any musical instrument, but only sounds of and from nature,” says Rathijit.
The musician played a host of unconventional musical instruments ranging from khamak, dotara to vocal percussions and more, in Gulabo Sitabo under the direction of Shantanu Moitra and recently produced two
songs and the background score for the Dev and Mithun Chakraborty starrer Projapati that released last week. “I have composed two songs for the film. The moods are very diverse for the songs and thus have different treatments. But the songs are very simple and people can connect with them easily. Even though I had to keep it simple, my signature arrangements are present. Moreover, I have used instruments that are not usually used nowadays like a mouth organ, dorbo, banjo, mandolin, fiddle and violin. I am also concentrating more on working on my original compositions, which will release soon,” says Rathijit.