Artistes Pavithra Chari (vocalist and composer) and Anindo Bose (keyboardist and sound engineer), the contemporary-classical duo from Delhi who form Shadow and Light, have been creating music that goes beyond the conventional.
Their originals exhibit a harmonious confluence of a variety of genres including Hindustani classical, jazz, electronic, among others. In this week's Soundscape, we speak to the duo about their upcoming single Raahein, and their plans for this year.
Your single Raahein is slated to release next week. Take us through the production process of this song.
Raahein started out with a basic set of chords with drums, bass, and vocals. The synth layers and hooks were then added, further enhancing the musical idea. Everything in the arrangement is electronically programmed and produced. An interesting fact is that the intro of the song was actually made after writing the entire song.
When it comes to creating music together, do each of you stick to individual rules or is the process fluid?
For us, the process is very fluid. Every song we have written has had a different process and structure. For example, our song Saavre, Anindo sent in the first melodic idea over which the vocals were composed. For the song Unkahi, Pavithra wrote the lyrics and melody first and then the arrangement followed. For our upcoming track Raahein, we worked on the vocals and arrangement simultaneously and we are very happy with the result.
How do your individual styles converge when you create music together for Shadow and Light?
We focus on the melodic and emotional narrative of the song, and then let the music guide everything else. We have not once worked on a song for the sake of including a genre or to make it sound a particular way. If the musical elements all combine to express the same story, and we feel strongly aligned to it, we go ahead with it. Between the two of us, we have such varied musical influences ranging from classic rock to Hindustani classical that we trust our musicality to lead us to the final creation.
What have you planned for this year?
We have many singles ready for release, and are considering 2022 to be a very musical year! We have a wonderful lyric video for Raahein coming up that we are excited to share with our listeners. We are also working on some amazing projects and collaborations that we will reveal through our social media channels as well as newsletter very soon.
'Raahein' by Shadow and Light will release on all major streaming platforms on January 10