Matti Caspi and Riki Gal

Collaborations on and off stage
Caspi's next two albums were made of Sasha Argov's compositions: "Matti Caspi sings Sasha Argov" and "Mattityahu and Alexander". Caspi, on his part, has contributed a fresh vocal interpretation to Argov's songs and has played various musical instruments: synthesizer, piano, bass, mandolin, drums, percussions and accordion. Matti Caspi speaks of Sasha Argov with great admiration and says that he wishes to compose just like him. The two have performed on stage, presenting songs from both albums with Matti performing vocally and Argov accompanying him on the piano.

The album "Yalduti Hashniya" (my second childhood) from 1984 included the song with the same title and also "Na'arati" (my girl), "shir am naki" (Friday night is bath night) and more.
In "side c side d" from 1987, once more, Matti releases a remake of his songs: "yemei binyamina" (binyamina days) - originally sung by Hava Alberstein, "lo tov heyot ha'adam levado" (Man was not meant to be alone) - Dani Litani and Yehudit Ravitz, "isha" (woman) - Hani Livne, "lakachta et yadi beyadcha" (you've shown me) - Yehudit Ravitz and more.
"Ehad le ehad" (one to one) from 1988 was a moving album, in which all the music was played by Caspi with one instrument only (piano or guitar). In it were memorable hits such as "slicha" (forgiveness), "shuvi Hashulamit" (return o shulamit), and "he hazra bitshuva" (lost in faith).

On stage, Matti renewed his historical collaboration with Grunich. "Behind the Sounds" became an album once again in 1984, followed by a third show in 89 and by single releases in 90 and 92.
Matti collaborated with the "Parvarim" duo in a show presenting South American songs. The collaboration yielded another album, which was named "A distant love song".
In 1987, Matti introduced an authentic Brazilian group to the Israeli public, with whom he produced the all times successful show and following album "eretz tropit meshaga'at" (a wild tropical land).

Matti Caspi in the "Wild Tropical Land" show

Two of Caspi's major albums of the 80's were with Riki Gal: "Riki Gal" in 1987 and "Ma zot ahave" (what is love) in 1988. Caspi was in charge of compositions, instruments playing, arrangements and musical production. The albums included many hits, among them: "yeled asur yeled mutar" (no no kid), "ma zot ahave" (what is love), "ma'arava mikan" (west of here), scandalous "na'arat harock" (rock'n'roll girl), "makom ledeaga" (someone cares), "betza'ar lo rav beyagon lo koder" (with no great sorrow) and many others. This amazing harvest brought about major success for both albums and the Caspi-Gal joint stage performances.

Another series of concerts in the late 80's was with Shalom Hanoch, and with the israeli philharmonic orcestra, for whom Matti composed and produced.
On stage performances, Caspi says: "I have no fear of making mistakes on stage, as long as the technical aspect is 100 percent intact. On stage I feel more loosened than I do anywhere else. I bring to the stage the same outcomes as I had achieved at home. Contrary to commercially oriented shows, that are based on the instincts of the audience, I choose to rely on my own instincts instead, and I never rely on any director or stuntman to help me work with the audience. No one will ever instruct me what clothes to wear according to the latest fashions. I wear my own clothes, that is unless they're not being washed that day."

Caspi has written to others a lot during the 80's, and mostly arranged and produced. He claims to love studio work, especially the outcome of the raw materials. According to Matti, he never writes songs by invitation. Instead he refers to himself as "giving away melodies", since he writes his songs mainly to himself, and only later he decides who is the most suitable person to carry it out. Benefited from Caspi's music are Oshik Levi, Have Alberstein, Nethanella, Nurit Galron, Yehudit Ravitz, Dani Robas, Gali Atari, Arik sinai, Meir Banai, Erez Halevi, Shoshana Damari, and many others.