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November 19, 2007
The Idan Raichel Project
A few nights ago, we drove to UCLA’s Royce Hall for a concert by The Idan Raichel Project.
Keyboardist & composer Idan Raichel infuses a blend of melodic Israeli songs with traditional Ethiopian folk music, Arabic poetry, Yemenite chants, Biblical psalms and Caribbean rhythms. The Project is an ancient-meets-modern Middle Eastern-Ethiopian fusion and had became one of Israel’s biggest musical success stories of recent years.
Raichel composed and arranged many of the tracks, performs vocals and plays the keyboard, while collaborating with other vocalists and musicians. Hit singles include Boi (בואי / "Come"), Im Telech (אם תלך / "If you go") and M'dab'rim B'sheket (מדברים בשקט / "Speaking Quietly").
While the majority of Raichel's songs are in Hebrew, a few are entirely in Amharic, while others include small passages in Amharic, by male and female voices, setting traditional-sounding tunes to modern music. Love-songs predominate in his Hebrew lyrics, including Hinech Yafah (הינך יפה / "Thou art Fair") based on the Song of Songs.
The show was awesome! Thanks to Cocos, for inviting me to the concert!
More: Press release
Wikipedia
My Space
A Huge Depository of Middle Easten Music Links Here
November 19, 2007 in Music from the Middle East | Permalink
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Comments
Idan Raichel's great wisdom is in the fusion of the various cultures in Israel. He transcends boundaries this way and speaks to the common theme in all people. I love his music.
Posted by: Yuval Ashkar at Jan 3, 2008 1:37:14 AM