COLLABORATION

across cultures, generations, religions...

Several weeks ago Ricky Romain,
a brilliant painter and an extraordinary sitar player,
a creative collaborator and a dear friend told me a story about how he,
in his younger self, collaborated for a while with two other musicians
and amongst other things and many gigs, produced a 4 minute piece.
Sadly, Tim Jones, who sang the Vocals and played Guitar
was then on the verge of death,
and Howard Harrison, on Keyboard and Strings, was also very ill.

Ricky Romain in concert at the Shute Festival     photograph: Robert Golden

With this sad news ringing in my ears,
Ricky wanted me to listen to the piece
the three of them had created many years ago.

Perhaps in light of the story,
or perhaps because of my trust in Ricky’s taste
and the note of distress in his voice,
I found the music profoundly moving,
filled with the shadows of our humanity
and with a poetry of confounding atmospheres.

After listening to it a few times
I told Ricky I had truly enjoyed it.
He asked me if I could somehow add visuals to it,
essentially to transform the music into a film’s score.

Usually I edit a film and then add music to it.
None the less, with trepidation I listened to it more than 20 times
across several days while exercising on my own
in what was otherwise early morning silence.
I easily played it over and over
as it was a balm for my spirit.
(Ukraine, Gaza, the French Election, the horror of Biden’s failure, and etc.)

I have explained in other essays how I believe
there is no beauty without truth.
The truth does not have to be obvious,
but the work must ring with something that is real,
concerning and profound.

This music easily convinced me that it embodies truths
which words are incapable of describing.
Of course, if words could provide what music provides
there would be no purpose in listening.

Meanwhile I could not understand a word of the song,
seemingly sung in an Indian language
and so asked Ricky to send me any words translated from the original language,
or any words written about the music.
Ricky wrote,
“The seed for this track was a traditional Indian sitar folk melody
in the rhythm cycle of Kherva (8 beats)
The Lyrics are from ’The Song of Songs’ chapter 8 verse7. ‘
Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.”

Many thanks to Ayesha Foot ( Tim’s student) for hearing these words in the melody.”

Mountain falls, Dolomites, Italy     Photograph: Robert Golden

The words were offering visual hints:
water and love,
or perhaps torrents of water and mad love, obsessive love.
The next step touched my anger,
the drowning of love by uncontrolled waters,
therefore the unnecessary climate crisis,
perpetuated day-by-day
by a handful of oligarchs against the rest of us
and in particular against my granddaughters and all other children.
This too is about greed, cynicism, power, wealth and psychopathic controls. 

I didn’t want to overlay this beautiful music
with a meaningless wallpaper of irrelevant images,
nor did I wish to push my own ego into their wonderful work.
I had Ricky’s request for his friends ringing in my ears,
I had the profound expression of the musicians musically poetic moment
and a few hints to go by.
As I had little more, I decided to follow my instincts,
to give them a gift of culture in exchange for their gift of beauty to all of us.
I knew I may have got it wrong and it would be rejected.

I listened to the music again, dividing it into sections
depending on if there were words being sung,
whether there were solos
and where there were harmonies created between instruments.
I searched for enunciated beats,
rises and falls of the overall wave of the music,
and how and where the rhythms changed.
These fragments of my crude utilisation
of their music as a scaffold
helped me to begin to structure the visuals,
placing them in as close a meaning to the music as I understood it,
while also making sense of the individual takes
from my many different stills and film sources
(and some stunning takes from xx Library).

When finished I sent Rick a file
which he has shown this to the families
and received approval for my efforts.
This is something for me to be quietly proud of,
perhaps prouder than winning an award for a film.

From my study of history I disdain religion,
(it has caused millions of deaths across many centuries)
but I can still admit to the beauty of some of its texts.
These words:  “Many waters cannot quench love”
from the Hebrew Bible are caring and passionate,
and they helped to illuminate the ideas for the film.

Enjoy this and please send comments I can pass onto the families
and Ricky. That would be appreciated and further the collaboration.

FILM CREDITS

Mayim Rabim Lo (Hebrew) 'Many Waters Can’t Drown Love’

Tim Jones: Vocals and Guitar.
Howard Harrison: Keyboard and Strings.
Ricky Romain: Sitar
Arranged by: Howard Harrison.
Film and Photography: Robert Golden
Additional footage: Artgrid

You can see the film here also.