This is the BBC.

This is about a man hunting for perfection.

A man wrapped up in the detail, restless for precision. He was the first and only person who would ever call me up after we'd been together to say,

what was it that you meant when you said X, Y, or Z?

What was it that you were thinking?

There was a look on your face, and I just didn't understand that, and I thought,

wow, you know, wow, I love it.

That's Joyce Bowden, a musical collaborator, a friend. They often meet in the

East Village of New York, near his apartment in what's known as the Poets Building.

He walks around the area with his headphones permanently on,

plugged into his cassette player like an extension of his body

as he dissects every note, every chord, and every tremor of his cello.

I mean that spent hours with him in his apartment doing mixes after mixes, you know, that I

think that something was really happening and I believe kind of excited and then come back again.

No, we're going to do this over again or there were many things that didn't get finished.

The details of his life are theirs now.

There's a moment that struck me in the way that they tell this story,

and it's only three seconds long,

13 perfectly chosen words. I hope you hear it too and find

your own. We'll catch up at the end. I'm Riana Dillon and this seriously

interesting story is Arthur Russell vanished into music.

May I have your attention please.

...