10. Ry Cooder, V.M. Bhatt‘Isa Lei (A Meeting By The River)’
I heard this through listening to Ry Cooder’s stuff, but what I’m obsessed with in it is the various solos that take place. There’s one in particular that starts at 4.08. It’s V.M Bhatt playing, and then there’s this little twist he does around 4.22. My influences in a lot of music can often be as precise as a few seconds. Here, he was obviously just jamming and the chords in the piece are not complex, but the way he moves between the notes in that solo, particularly at 4.22, it just does something to me: I can’t really hear it without being moved to tears. The whole piece is magic.
The song places you in this deep state of calm from the beginning. You feel like you’re hearing the friendship of these two people play out on the song. I like to imagine them sitting outside somewhere jjust playing almost as much for each other as they are for the audience. There are clearly the bits that they’ve worked on in advance where they play in unison, but then they both take on [more improvised] solos. Bhatt takes two or three and they get more complex. The one that happens [at 4.22] comes in on the D and then it guides you into the G with this little rundown from the B to the G. The fluidity his instrument has, and the way he plays that little run is honestly one of my most favourite moments in any piece of recorded music that I think I’ve ever heard. Not an exaggeration! I went through a phase of listening to this every morning when I woke up as it just sort of set the course for the day.
When I was a kid and a teenager, I used to play improvised piano with people a lot, and on the Polarity tour which I did a few years ago I got to do that again, but in general, I don’t do acoustic jamming with anyone anymore. In the end, you only have a certain amount of time in life and my focus seems to be on composition and studio work, but I miss that [collaboration] sometimes. I can’t play the guitar but I wish I could. There’s something about just picking up a guitar and going and sitting somewhere and playing with someone in that way that’s quite magical.
