07/08/2026
I just published a long conversation with Kavi Alexander, the founder of Water Lily Acoustics. If you don't know the name, he produced and engineered A Meeting by the River with Ry Cooder and V.M. Bhatt, which won a Grammy, and for forty years he has made some of the most beautiful sounding records I've ever heard. (thumbnail image made with AI).
His life story alone is worth the watch. He grew up in Sri Lanka listening to Elvis on Radio Ceylon. He discovered the Beats through a Jack Kerouac article torn out of a smuggled Pl***oy at boarding school. He landed in Paris and joined the cast of Hair, gave poetry readings at Shakespeare and Company, and made his first commercial recording with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers when Wynton Marsalis was a 19 year old kid in the band. Then he cold called Ali Akbar Khan, recorded him, and built one of the most respected audiophile labels in the world from that single phone call.
Sitting across from him for this was an honor and a privilege. He carries the entire history of the recording arts in his head, and he shared so much of it. This conversation is exactly why I started the channel.
Link in the comments if you want to watch. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it
