Matti Caspi - One to One (Hed Arzi 1988)

“One to One” is in many ways Caspi’s most intimate album. Unlike the richness of arrangements and production that characterizes the rest of his albums, Caspi chose to experiment with only one instrument in this album, the piano (with one exception) with no additions. While in his first album Caspi set new high standards playing all the instruments, “One to One” set a standard in popular Israeli music. Only few musicians attempted to recreate the intimacy achieved in this album.

The album contains some of Caspi’s most emotional compositions, among them the notable “The Gate of Mercy”, the only instrumental piece in the album and one of few that had appeared in Caspi’s albums so far. This piece is part of a longer composition called “The Gate of Mercy” from a show called “The Six Days and Seven Gates” which was entirely written by Itzhak Navon and composed by Matti Caspi for the Israel Festival of 1982. In that show Matti Caspi conducted the Israeli chamber orchestra.

The dominating atmosphere in this album is contemplative and somewhat melancholy. Songs like “She Converted”, “Your Hand”, “Only You”, and “Oy” represent an introverted and emotional aspect of Caspi’s work, which hasn’t always had the chance to stand in the front stage. These songs and others were included in the successful concert “One to One” which also included lighter songs like “Return Oh Shulamit” and “Sponjah”.

Caspi shows his sensitivity as a composer by matching his music to complex lyrics such as in “She Converted”. The song, with the lyrics written by Yaankale Rothblit which is about the conversion process of his wife, gives an honest and true expression of all the variety of emotions in it - love, hate, jealousy, anger and despair. Not in vain did this song become one of the most recognizable with Caspi. This song was also one of the first to be written for this album, and was performed by Caspi in several shows a few years prior to the album’s release.

Unlike the other songs appearing in the album, “With All the Body” was recorded with a guitar. The rhythm suits Ehud Manor’s tender lyrics perfectly.

“In the new album, only one song is played with a guitar, the rest with a piano. I recorded playing and singing all at once, without preparations. Meaning, if there was a mistake, even in one word, I would do it all over again. I’ve never released an album with ‘naked’ songs, with no effects or alterations. Hence the name ‘One to One’. I’ve worked on the album for a week. I’ve sung all the songs in two-three days. Then I listened to it and it wasn’t personal enough, or alone. I’d sung like I was in front of a hundred people, but when a person listens to it at home, they are single and alone. I recorded everything again. I sang to one person or to myself, which is most important. And that is the atmosphere that comes out of the album”.