It was an effortless and humbling exchange…
It’s about 15 years ago but this is how it happened (at least in my memory)… I was working at Real World Studios, mixing an album with Hector Zazou. We had dinner with Peter one evening and I told him about the totally unexpected success of Songs Of Awakening, the first album of Lama Gyurme & Jean-Philippe Rykiel, released 4 years before. I had a DAT copy of a concert we’d recently done in Madrid and played him a few excerpts including an astonishing piano/vocal version of a new piece called “Offering Chant”. His reaction was immediate, he offered me a deal for a second album, granting us carte blanche but for one condition: a piano/vocal version of this prayer should be included in the album. It was an effortless and humbling exchange, I offered the song, he offered a deal. It remains until today one of the most unbelievable events of my entire career. I remember calling Jean-Philippe afterwards and saying “We have a deal, let’s start working as soon as I am back”. It took a long year to complete the album (recorded in France and in Spain) known as Rain Of Blessings, and released by Real World Records in February 2000.
