Matti Caspi and Shlomo Gronich - Behind the Sounds (Hed Arzi 1973)

The first collaboration between Matti Caspi and Shlomo Gronich.
The album was first a concert, which was renewed in 1984, 1989, and in 2002.

The album, which was recorded by the BA during a show at the “Zavta” club, is considered to be a milestone in Israeli music. Despite the low quality of the recording, and the fact that the songs in the album are only a small part of the actual show, “Behind the Sounds” is one of the best live show albums ever recorded in Israel.

The album reflects a unique phenomenon - a combination of two talented artists in the beginning of their career, who are able to create together a convincing and fascinating musical masterpiece. Gronich and Caspi have composed many songs together, unlike Lennon and McCartney, whose songs they wrote together were, in fact, songs each one of them has written separately. During his interviews, Gronich has described the work of the two together - a joint improvisation, which sometimes developed into a structured song. Gronich mentioned Caspi’s rare ability to remember long improvisations without the help of a recording tape.

The opening song “God Has Mercy”, written by poet Yehuda Amichai, which is played as a continuation of the opening instrumental piece, demonstrates Gronich and Caspi’s ability, who were in their early twenties back then, to compose complex texts in a serious and mature way. No doubt it’s one of the finest albums ever produced in Israel. Even so, not all songs in the album were composed together, since the show incorporated songs and pieces each one has composed separately, before their meeting. And so, Caspi performs his song “When God First Said” and Gronich contributed his song “Please Don’t Go” and the instrumental piece “Quinta” which he composed at fifteen, and is named after his dog back then.

Songs like “Behind the White Fence” are a pinnacle of both simplicity and complexity - even though the performance isn’t that virtuosic, the music is complex and incorporates classical influences (the ending is a homage to Bach) and also jazz influences. In other songs Gronich’s piano skills and Matti’s guitar skills are well recognized. All you need to do is listen to the one minute opening piece of the album to realize that even a song with few chords becomes a work of art in the experienced hands of the two.

In 2002 the album was released in a special edition with an improved high-quality sound, which included a number of new songs.

Among the songs not included in this album, were “Dear Husband and Sweet Wife”, and “What Will Become of Me” (like the song “And You”, this song was composed by Caspi and its lyrics were written by Gronich) which were written by the duo in 1971, and came out only as mini records. Also, the song “Ein Gedy” by Yehuda Amichai, which composing by the two was recorded on a TV show, isn’t included here. The song “Knights’ Horses” (lyrics by: Amir Gilboa) is a gem which can easily be missed due to its length and low-quality recording. Moreover, the songs shed some light upon the fascinating relationship between Gronich and Caspi as musicians who are attentive to each other’s improvisations, and who discover, among the rest, the humorous side of their shared creation, which didn’t find a spot in the original album.

The Yom Hakipurim war, which was right ahead, closed the first chapter of the shared creation of Gronich and Caspi. They were destined to renew their work together only a decade later, following Gronich’s return from the USA.

The booklet added to the new edition of the album contains a short article by Yoav Kutner which discusses the duo’s contribution to Israeli music:

Back to Behind the Sounds

Thirty years later, it’s hard to grasp the power of the revolution Shlomo Gronich and Matti Caspi have created in the Israeli music of the early 70’s. Now, after a large part of their songs has long become “the classics of Hebrew music”, that meeting between the two young and hungry musicians seems and sounds perfectly natural… but back then in the early 70’s it was completely different, strange and surprising, hard to take in… a minimalistic ensemble, almost naked, that presents a unique outburst of talents that aren’t afraid to combine jazz elements in classical music, with folk influences, and poet and personal songs, without considering what’s popular in Israeli pop… it was all new and fresh and very uncommercial…

Only in hindsight it can be seen that “Behind the Sounds” was a beginning of a new genre in Israeli music, which for convenience purposes, we’ll call “Advanced music” (with collaborators as Yonni Rechter, Avner Kenner, Shem Tov Levy, Shlomo Yidov, Zohar Levy, and many more). The revolutionary tone of the album may have faded by the end of that decade, but Caspi and Gronich’s victory is in the implementation of their revolution in legitimate Israeli music.

The first musical encounter between Matti Caspi and Shlomo Gronich occurred in1970 1970 when Caspi composed and arranged the songs of the musical “City of Men” written by Dan Almagor according to the works of Damon Runyon. Gronich was one of the musicians playing at the recordings (which included “Little Pinkas” performed by Sassie Keshet) and the two developed a fascinating musical friendship and partnership.

In 19711971 the two recorded together forgotten songs like “Dear Husband and Sweet Wife” and “What will Become of Me” yet they hadn’t worked together as a duo until Caspi pushed Gronich to record his first solo album. Only after the release of that revolutionary album (“Why Haven’t You Told Me”) of Gronich, and several attempts of Caspi to record as a soloist, the two turned to actually working together.

ב"פסטיבל הזמר" 1972 In the 1972 “Festival of Music” Caspi played his music for the song “And You”. The lyrics and arrangement for that song were created by Gronich, and the song is an example of the quality of their relationship. Originally Caspi composed to lyrics written by Dan Almagor about the chimney at Ridding club (for a satire TV show). Gronich thought this composition deserved more personal words, and thus wrote the lyrics for the song that became one of the biggest love-farewell-yearning songs in Hebrew music.

That time the two individualistic composers started doing something they have never done before (nor after): to co-compose. The first time was with the song “A Painting” and later with “Ben Gurion” (both songs appeared in a mini record in 1972)1972and also with the songs they composed for the “Susanne and Fran” duo, and singer Shlomit Aharon. The pinnacle of their collaboration was in their joint concert “Beyond the Sounds” which featured songs they composed together as well as the best of each one’s hits. Eitan Gafni produced the show, the BA recorded a show at the “Zavta” club, Hed Arzi released the album, and there we have it, a milestone in Israeli music.

Yoav Kutner