Music that will live for Milleniums to come. Review on Thiruvasakam - Illayaraja

I have already registered my initial thoughts here and if you want read My first review please go to this link

Why So Much hype

And now I am going to elaborate my experience in listening to the Song “Polla Vinayaen”. Before the release of the album, everyone who have heard the preview of this track were full of praises and went gaga over it and created a lot of hype and I was quite against this creating hype on a single track from an album that too an album of this kind which has six numbers in it, which may even be like indirectly degrading other songs. But after listening to this track many times, I now understand why everyone was talking about this one song in particular. Even I am doing the same now. I am writing about this song is particular leaving the other 5 songs but that doesn’t mean other five songs are not great, they are equally great but this song is somewhat special and the composition and the complexity is beyond anyone’s imagination.

Beyond the Audible Frequency

For the first time in my life, a song treated and healed my soul piercing my body and ears and made me realize that there is music beyond audible range (20 to 20k Hz). In this frequency, you will not play the CD, you will not hum the tune, you will not hear it anywhere around but yet you can feel the music and your soul will be vibrating to the rhythm of that music. Try to listen to this song in that frequency and you can feel the same. This song has completely occupied my soul and every second I am (not hearing, not humming, not singing) but ????ing this music.

And here follows my experience of hearing the song nth time

This time I was alone in my room, nobody is around to disturb me. As I have heard it a couple of times before, I decided to have the lyrics notes with me this time and follow the verses along with the song. I switched on the player and a divine voice started “Polla Vinayaen”, I was reading the lyrics from the book in my hand and slowly as IR continues and when the English verses slips in “I am just a man”, I closed the book and closed my eyes. And as the song proceeded I was able to see a lot of crystal structures throwing millions of colours in my eyes with each one emerging out of the other which is something like lot of thoughts that crosses our mind while we start meditating. Then when each line in the English verses ends with “Polla Vinayaen” along with the backing symphony shifting to Indian and western notes seamlessly and leading to a big banging western choir along with symphony, all the colours that appeared in my eyes blurred and I was know able to converge my concentration at one void point. Then starts the brilliant lines “So many forms I must wear” which Ray Harcourt sings in high pitch will all necessary emotion, I joined him in singing and I shouted as much as I could along with him and the again the counter “Polla Vinayaen” here is a master punch.

Now Manickavasagar’s verses “Pullagi Poovagi” synonymous with “So many forms, So many lives” follow for which IR has given an out of the world tune which starts in a low range while mentioning the non-living things (Agrinai) and reaching high while listing living things (Uyirthinai ) especially the range at which “Munivarai, Thevarai” sung along with a western and Indian choir backing is the scintillating episode of this part. As I was hearing this, I was able to realize that I was slowly losing contact with the materialistic world around me, I lost the touch of the clothes on my body and when I was raising high along with him, IR brought everything down and I was starting to melt by the way he rendered lines “Thavara Sangamathul Ella Pirappum Piranthilaithaen” along with a solo violin backing. And again the tempo goes high by which a flash appears and passes my soul as the line “Ongaramai nindra Meyyae” reaches high with a bang and choir ending this part with “Om”.

A hymn starts slowly which is the tune of “Namachivaya Vazhga” line and some miracle happened in body like some electric shock passing from the head to the toes, the result of which brought tears out of my eyes. And my tears tasted sweet as it reached my lips while hearing another melting melody in the line “Yegan, Anegan” – a stunning melody to end this part with. I was waving my head along with the chorus singing “Namachivaya” and again there is spellbinding counter point is heard with Western choir aptly appending “Hail Hail” with Tamil chorus. Now I have reached a point where nothing is in my mind expect this song and its music. Then the song proceeded and by the time the song reached the line “My five senses made no sense” I was in a state of void buy yet complete and my five senses made no sense, I reached the supreme spiritual energy of the Universe.

Then the song took a terrific shift to a high tempo rendition of the verses “Vaetru Viagara” along with great choir and the ending is just out of the world with three banging percussion strokes for the word “Udaipanyan”. Again the time for a sweet tear the banging end breaks to “Namachivaya Vazha” capaella. I have never heard Illayaraja in the pitch in which he has sung the line “Aakkam, Alavu, Iruthi illa” and that truly shows how passionate IR is on Thiruvasakam and his brain cells have really melted to write this composition.

The next part is foot tapping prayer kind of “Masatra Sonae”, the flow of notes is so spontaneous and we feel there can’t any better way to sing these lines. I was again shaking my head and the line “Eerthennai Atkonda enthai Perumanae” holds good if I sing it for Illayaraja too. He has attracted and completely occupied me through his music in the way Manickavasagar was attracted towards Lord Siva. “Deep in my soul” starts next set of verses which end with another aptly suitable line which defines my state after hearing it that is “Beginning to be free”. Yes, I came out of my body and felt free in the world of spiritual energy and danced in trance. And perfectly suiting my state, the tempo of the verse “Eesan Adi Potri” and the accompanied chord, rhythm, and “Hail” choir further increased my enthusiasm. Finally my spirit reached it maximum limit when the final crescendo started and I was literally crying like anything for the final “Namachivaya Vazhgha” choir. What more I can add

Initially I was under shock and surprise and didn’t realize much of intricacies in the song but know as I know what comes next I am able to enjoy the song like anything. My advice is hear it alone and let you emotions to flow freely as you may restrict yourself from emotionally enjoying the song while listening along with your friends. If you feel like shaking you heads do it, feel like singing with IR do it, feel like shout “So many lives I must bear” along with the English singer do it, feel like crying do it, feel like shaking your hands and your body and going mad please do it and see for yourselves that finally you would have lost in trance and you would have gone to a place where you have never been before.

Still more to come….