Rachel’s Album Listening Post 224. In Genesis, Rachel leaves Haran with her large family and reaches the Promised Land before dying in childbirth. In modern times, the Rachel who often declared Bayti Fi Rasi (My Home Is in My Head) was a single mother who left the...
Bach to the Future Listening Post 210. No composer has motivated more artists to adapt his work than Johann Sebastian Bach. Remixing began when eighteenth-century orchestras deployed pianos in pieces JBS composed for clavichord and harpsichord; it continues today with...
Song of Songs Listening Post 195. Idan Raichel reshaped Israel’s music landscape, integrating Middle Eastern, Ethiopian and Latin sounds and taking his band, The Idan Raichel Project, onto the world stage. He has notably performed at a Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in...
Tel Aviv Bachata Listening Post 163. When it comes to synergistic contrasts, to matching moods and cultural elements that don’t typically appear together and then making them crackle, Rotem Cohen has few equals. He began his career writing for some of Israel’s leading...
From Isfahan to Jerusalem Listening Post 142. Her voice has an exquisite purity that commands without overwhelming. The facets of her life and music—liturgical poems and love songs—add to the aptness her name: Nehedar means “splendid” in Hebrew. Maureen Nehedar was...
Double Exposure Listening Post 125. Though recognizable by his dreadlocks and turban, Idan Raichel often seemed to hide in plain sight. Concerts of his Idan Raichel Project feature up to 15 artists at a time on stage, no one commanding the spotlight, and the...
Bride and Prejudice Listening Post 83. The Sephardic saga includes chapters of persecution and expulsion, but on her forth album the Israeli singer-songwriter Mor Karbasi (who has also lived in London and Seville) looks at her Jewish heritage from Spain and Morocco...
Playing Defense Listening Post 66. A doomsday joke: Hearing that the earth will be submerged by rising seas in 72 hours, clergymen counsel prayer and repentance. But a lone scientist goes on global TV and issues a challenge: “We have three days to learn how to breathe...
The Agony and the Ecstasy Listening Post 56. Reviews of his live shows describe Rotem Cohen as charming, engaging, funny—and with a soulful voice—but he took a crooked route to the stage. He tried acting school, but skipped classes to compose music. He wrote for some...
In the Presence of Presents Listening Post 6. From universal themes of love, life and parenthood to the particulars of Israeli life, always wrapped in pitch perfect arrangements, Rami Kleinstein’s musical gift is anything but small. The 12 tracks on Matanot K'tanot...
