The first time I fell in love

An afternoon in 2011. I really should have made a written record of the most magical moment ever but never mind. I was in the middle of clearing out my room and organising my music collection. My sister was at university at the time and she had loads of CDs in her room. I was in my kitchen going through them on the CD player to see if there was anything good on them. Apart from a few bought CDs from the early 21st century pop punk persuasion, most were self made and unmarked, except for statements such as Phitt Mix 2006. These gave no indication of what was on the discs so I listened to all of them. There was one CD. There were fourteen tracks on it and I listened to the beginning of each track to see if I liked it. There were all kinds of things on this CD, Chopin Nocturnes, a lot of Hip Hop I didn't recognise, Sam Sparro Black and Gold then track eight.

Within five seconds I knew I was hearing something very special. At the eighth second the melody kicked in and I was hooked. I fell in love so quickly and so hard I have never felt anything quite like it before or since. This track was entirely instrumental just a gorgeous melody. I had never experienced anything like this before. I had no idea what type of music this was, I didn't know the artist, the year, the album, where it was from in the world, nothing. I just knew I had to keep listening. I was addicted. I just stayed there swaying with the rhythm until the sway became dance. I repeated that piece a great many times and with every listen my heart melted and my entire body shivered with pleasure. It was a magical experience.

When I managed to stop listening for a second, I remembered my phone had an app for finding songs so I ran upstairs, turned on my phone and its internet and pressed Soundhound. Soundhound told me it was Better Days Ahead by Pat Metheny from the 1989 album Letter From Home. I instantly found it on the internet, listened to the whole album and researched Pat Metheny and this type of Brazilian infused jazz as it was known.

I have fallen in love with thousands of songs since dancing to Gipsy Kings and Lionel Richie in my front room when I was five but nothing has ever quite compared with that one exquisite moment. That completely pure, unburdened unadulterated joy. That mystery of not knowing what I was listening to, but that I was in love.

That one moment of magic.