Andre 3000 released new music for the first time in 17 years this week. But "New Blue Sun" is not what most fans may have expected. The record has no rap music. What it does have is the flute.

He raises the hollowed block of wood to his lips, draws a breath and then exhales. An F-sharp hovers in the morning air and then vanishes. It’s called “first breath,” Kent Bush says. Many flutes come ...