Simply the best. Review on Nothing But Wind - Illayaraja

Soul-stirring music that will haunt you for days and make you listen to it time and again.

When I first listened to this music, I was not aware of what lies ahead of me. Before listening to this music, Illayaraja was ONE of my best music directors. I used to listen to Techno instrumental music like Enigma, Dreamland, etc. I also used to listen to Hindi Film music. But after listening to this fantastic album, I have deleted all songs in my IPOD and loaded it with Illayaraja songs. I feel I missed something till date by not listening to his songs often. Music is music if it comes from a maestro like Illayaraja.

Just listen to this album with the lights off and an earphone. Close your eyes and surrender yourself to Illayaraja as he takes you on a long journey. You will start imagining all the best and worst incidents of your life. The music will alter from happy to sad to anger and so on. In fact, it will raise all the nine possible emotions in you. At one point the music was so soul-stirring that I felt like crying and the very next minute I was over-joyed. That is the profound effect this music has on you.

The title track ''Nothing but wind'' tries to tell you a story through music alone. When the music started, I felt like a baby has taken birth and its playing with nature. The chirping of birds and the ''childish'' music clearly bring the picture of a small child playing. Suddenly a soul-stirring violing starts and makes you realize that play time is over. Its for some serious stuff now. You can imagine the child has grown-up and doing more serious things in life. You can hear chants denoting that the child, now a man, got married. Then you hear war-like sounds that denote that the man has joined the army and fighting a war. The music ends on a sad note denoting that the soldier died in the war. Well, that was the story that came to my mind when I listened to this music. I am sure you will imagine your own story when you listen to the track. My point basically is that, the music is so inspiring and effective that it speaks to you and make you realize that life is full of ups and downs.

The track ''Song of soul'' is aptly named. Its stirs your soul like a grinder grinds carrots. The music is so haunting that it keeps following you in a subtle part of your mind.

I work in USA and I played this music to my American colleagues and they were bowled over. That is the effect pure good music has on people. It has no boundaries.