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Amazon.co.uk Review
Ry Cooder has long had an interest in other people's music, from the blues and gospel of black America through classic jazz and the music of Cuba. Even by this standard, his meeting with Mohan Vishwa Bhatt is certainly a departure. He is neither a serious student of Indian music nor in any way a master of its intricacies. Yet on his improvised session (this album was recorded without rehearsal in one evening), he and Bhatt truly collided musically and created moments worthy of the world-music Grammy they received for it. Bhatt is an iconoclastic character himself. He plays a modified box he calls the mohan vina that is a hybrid of a classical Indian instrument and slide guitar. He is long trained in the arduous classical style, yet his work has always demanded a lot of freedom. His duets here with Cooder are completely unique, liberating both artists from the usual constraints and creating a new musical style that is unlikely to be repeated or imitated. --Louis Gibson
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A musical meeting of the West and the East shapes sound landscapes of melody, calm and beauty,
By
This review is from: A Meeting By the River (Audio CD)
Rick Turner, founder of the fable Alembic Guitars Company, is a friend of Ry Cooder. He played him an album recorded by Vishwa Mohan Bhatt for Water Lily Acoustics. Bhatt is an Indian musician who conceived and plays an instrument called the "mohan vina" which, used with a metal slide, strongly recalls a slide guitar. Cooder, a master of the latter instrument, was so moved by what he heard that he decided to meet Bhatt. Subsequently, both recorded this instrumental gem of an album. The recording sessions were very loose and the music was entirely improvised. The interplay between those two master musicians is such that, as the music progresses, Ry's guitar lines start bending their heads toward India while Vishwa's get bluesier. The two seemingly disparate guitars eventually embrace one another and intertwine until you can't tell where one leaves off and the other begins The music is powerful yet tranquil and the vibe creates a whole universe of modal patterns. Complementing each other, Cooder and Bhatt lay out vast landscapes of sound that seem to transport you, upon listening, into another "musical zone." Backed by the rhythm section of Sukhvinder Singh Namdhari (tabla) and Joachim Cooder (dumbek, bongo-like instrument), the two master slide guitarists converse in ancient melodies and weave a spell that begs for darkness and infinite repeat. Moreover, thanks to the fine engineering, the recorded sound is flawless. This is one of the best-sounding acoustic guitar recordings that I have ever heard. I want to tell you that "A Meeting by the River" is just flat-out astounding. It is, without a doubt, one of my three favourite Cooder albums. It fully deserves a place of choice in his many fans' library.
19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Peace and longing,
By
This review is from: A Meeting By the River (Audio CD)
I'll leave technical remarks to one more musical if I may. Suffice to say that listening to this album evokes such feelings of harmony, peace and acceptance in me. This is due partly to the beautiful, soulful quality of the music, and partly to an understanding that this is two musicians meeting in a world which seeks to be rid of such arbitrary boundaries as culture, nationality or 'style'. The music that these two create represents, for me, a very powerful unifying force in all things. And if that sounds too esoteric, just give it a listen!If you love tender, meaningful music, I can't recommend this highly enough.
19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another successful collaboration,
By A Customer
This review is from: A Meeting By the River (Audio CD)
Ry Cooder scores again, magically matching up his guitar skills with those of VM Bhatt. Sublime melodies with plenty of slide action from Ry, in the sparse vein of Paris Texas, but Bhatt keeps up alongside very admirably. I've no idea how these two guys met, but Mr Cooder seems to have a very sensitive nose for seeking out like-minded musical playmates... and to think that some pleb travelling in my car described this as '..curry house music..'! It's sublime, not ridiculous.
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