"Arik Sini"
Matti Caspi worked with Arik Sini as arranger, producer, and composer of five of his albums:
In 1980 Sini’s debut album"Arik Sini"was released, and included two songs written by Yaakov Gilad and arranged by Matti Caspi: ”Limestone Road” (composed by C. Allal) and “Like Many Years Ago” (composed by Y. Ravitz).
In 1981 Sini’s second album“Heavy Shadow”was released with Caspi’s musical production and arrangements. The album included the hitA Good Reasoncomposed by Caspi (lyrics by E. Manor).
Matti Caspi wrapped Sini’s pleasant baritone voice in a clever soft country package and created a beautiful and witty sound for the album. The album isn’t only considered the best Arik Sini has ever released to date - but one of the best ever released in Israeli pop.
In 1982 Sini released a nostalgia album titled“Repeating Songs”and in it, produced and arranged by Caspi, thirteen old songs. The songs were recorded live in a studio. The album, the least invested in and produced by Sini, became a great success in its field.
The album"Now"included six songs written and composed by Klepter, and arranged by Matti Caspi.
In 1987 Sini recorded another compilation of old songs arranged by Caspi for the album“Repeating Songs 2”which came out two years later in 1989. Caspi arranged and musically produced renewals of ten old songs and played the piano, guitar, percussion, harmonica and bass.
In 1990 the album“Repeating Songs 1+2”came out as a CD and in it were all the songs from the two original albums.
Matti Caspi talks about his work on Arik Sini’s albums:
“Arik Sini has an impressive voice, in its volume of tones. In the first album I produced for him - ‘Heavy Shadow’ - I’ve made some pretty rich arrangements, but I still left some space for his singing in order to let it stand out properly. I purposely left some space for it. It didn’t ruin anything, there’s no draw of focus or attention.
I also produced two other albums with him titled ‘Repeating Songs’ where I trusted his voice. When he finished recording we brought a choir into the studio. They all sat on the floor, and we played the recording from the monitors as they sang along with it. I chose to record them that way instead of recording a real singing in public. If you listen to the mix - all the drums are on one side, the bass is on another side, an electric piano here, a guitar there… I aimed to give a sense of a small room, even though we could’ve made it stereo. But there was no need for that because it was supposed to be very simple, the arrangements and the lyrics”.