An Interview with Annada Prasanna Pattanaik and Dr. Rajiv Tyagi on “Dhundli Si Yaadein”


Born in Odisha flutist Annada Prasanna Pattanaik has had more than a decade-long relationship with the Indian Music Industry.

One of the prominent music composers in the industry, Annada, or “Flute Butto” as he is fondly called, is a disciple of renowned flutist Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, the greatest flute maestro of India.

Having played for more than 1000 Indian movies, Annada is also a big name in the Indian Music Industry.

Here are the excerpts of an interview with Mr. Pattanaik and Dr. Tyagi on their latest Album “Dhundli Si Yaadein“. How was your experience in the journey of creating your first music album?

Mr. Pattanaik: The process of composing the tunes of the songs had started long ago (even before I became a thoroughly professional artist 1992) during my struggling days in Bombay (now Mumbai), while learning Bansuri from Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia. Everyday, I used to cover a long distance in the Bombay local train to reach Pt. Harijee’s place. Once I thought of making the most use of the travelling time by just becoming creative and composing some tunes in the train itself, without even knowing the purpose of those tunes. Making any album was not at all the goal, but that moment inside the local train, among the heavy crowd, I was just alone, within myself, with my creativity. Everyday in the evening, before I sleep, I used to organise the songs by writing the notation and kept them in a file. In this process many tunes were composed. Then about one year later, I moved to south, and within a very short span of time, I became one of the most wanted flute player in the music industry.

I had never thought of those tunes for many years, mainly because I never got time for myself. I was always busy in recordings and shows and had never realised that many years have passed by. Just few years back I came across Dr. Rajiv Tyagi, my neighbour and we became close friends. He happens to be a great music lover and gradually, I realised although he is a scientist, he also has a great potential in writing lyrics.

Then I searched for the old file where my composed tunes were preserved. Then it was just the matter of putting words in the tunes. In this Album I have played many roles like that of a producer, composer, arranger, singer and I played the flute and even the guitar.

One nice thing about this album is that since it was composed almost 25 years ago, it has a flavour of 80s and 90s. In addition, as it was recorded recently, it has the newness of some modern techno sounds. Hence, I believe this is a very unique album in the present day. Why did you decide to release on Apple Music instead of other online platforms, also, skipping the traditional route?

Mr. Pattanaik: This is the age where everything is digital. In music also hard copies like CDs and cassettes have already become outdated. This is the age of Downloads. I also thought in a futuristic way, that my album should be available in every corner of the world. While doing research, I came across an Austrian company called REBEAT. This is basically the parent company which makes the product available for download in almost all the different digital stores in the world. Hence, I decided to release my album through REBEAT. For India, REBEAT has tied up only with iTunes. Hence in India my album is available only through iTunes. Please tell something about yourself as music project is not a usual path for a professional like you who work mostly with sciences and technologies.

Dr. Tyagi: Yes, I agree with you. Music usually is not associated with a scientist. However, I strongly believe innovation is the core for both science and music. How you expand and explore your thought to write a lyrics can easily be compared to designing a new research experiment. For me personally, both music and research are spiritual journey. What is your next music project?

Mr. Pattanaik: Creativity in music is a never ending story. Whenever I and Rajiv sit together it is only new songs that come out of us. We have many ideas. Especially I want to come out with an album focusing on social injustice. Hopefully soon we will come out with this. Meanwhile, I have also come out with one Odia flute instrumental album called “Unforgettable Odia Songs on Flute by Annada Prasanna Pattanaik” which was also a long pending album. This is my tribute to my home state Odisha. Please take a look for the glimpse of all the songs below.