Bharat Rajagopalan is a multi-instrumentalist from Nagpur, currently in his final year of completing Physics and Mechanical Engineering at BITS Goa. It was in college, playing live at several events as part of the music society, that Bharat realized how much music meant to him, and he started to learn various instruments and get better at them. He plays electric guitar, percussive fingerstyle guitar, bass, drums, keys and also produces, mixes and masters tracks. In May of 2020, he released his debut single, “Paper Kite (ft. Manjunatha Bairi)” on all streaming platforms as his first experience in writing, recording, mixing, mastering and releasing a track all on his own, and the response was overwhelming.
Soon thereafter he started work on his solo concept album, wherein he’s trying to condense the experience of his college life into a single album, and each track would represent a semester of his college life. The last track on the album, called “Abrupt / 4-2” is an experiment in instrumental post-rock, and features Hrishi Giridhar from the prominent indie band Anand Bhaskar Collective on a soulful guest solo. Bharat Rajagopalan has dedicated this song to the batch of 2020-21, which never got to have its “one last time”s and never got to say its goodbyes to college life properly. Through this track, Bharat Rajagopalan has tried to narrate his experience of dealing with this abrupt ending to his college life, hoping that it will resonate with others who have suffered through the same.
It is fair to say that there is nothing else quite like “Abrupt /4-2” as far as songs talking about the impact of the lockdowns on our lives go. The beautiful, ambient guitar leads transport us into a different world, a world that is more ambitious and definitely bleaker than Bharat Rajagopalan’s previous release, “Paper Kite”. Although it is dedicated to events that started in the previous year, it resonates with what’s happening today as well, especially to the lives of people who are in college. Punctuated by a fantastic guitar solo from Hrishi Giridhar, “Abrupt/4-2” weaves a great musical story that is a fitting tribute to the abruptly ended college life of the batch of 2020-21.
Verdict: A great ode to the days snatched by fate.
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