Yesterday morning, something wonderful happened. A copy of ?Spirit Dance? dropped through my letterbox ( Vielen dank, Otto ~ Ich bin Ibnen sehr verbunden!). I?d also been looking out for it for at least 4 years and, while I hadn?t entirely given up, I wasn?t exactly hopeful either ? after all, who, in their right mind, would part with a Nitin Sawhney album? Exactly!
?Spirit Dance? opens with ?River Pulse?, rushing to greet you like an old friend, and features another familiar track further along , ?Pieces of Ten? ?..but with a female vocalist (Sushmita Ghosh)! AND it?s an album full of surprises, with more than a fleeting dub-reggae presence and some mind-boggling sound effects lurking on a few of the tracks ? the title track especially, with its Gong-like looping intro ????. but, please, don?t let that put you off!!! ?Skylight? is an incurably romantic guitar piece (pure ?Nitin?!) and ?Chase the Sun? is the kind of wickedly hypnotic track that implores you to lie back, listen and let your mind go! But! But! BUT! (And this is where I am thankful that it?s a CD and not vinyl because God knows, during the past 38 hours, I would?ve worn the grooves out completely!) There is one track on this album that has to be one of Nitin Sawhney?s finest pieces of music (and, heaven knows, we are spoilt for choice); ?Wind and Rain? is an outstanding piano solo of dark, turbulent beauty. If it had taken me forty years to find a copy of ?Spirit Dance?, my patience could not have been better rewarded!
"Does my bum look big in this installation?"