I’d never heard of The Idan Raichel Project before, but Kerry, a friend on LibraryThing has been quietly posting some links to great music on my LT thread lately (including The Hobbit’s Song of the Lonely Mountain).
The following directly from the The Idan Raichel Project site:
The Idan Raichel Project burst onto the global music scene in 2003, changing the face of Israeli popular music and offering “a fascinating window into the young, tolerant, multi-ethnic Israel taking shape away from the headlines” (Boston Globe).
Idan Raichel, the creator and leader of the Project, began his musical journey by inviting collaborations from artists of different generations, multiple ethnicities and singing in languages as diverse as Hebrew, Spanish, Arabic, Amharic and Swahili. The resulting albums shattered sales records in Israel, made Raichel his country’s biggest musical breakthroughs, and sold over half a million records worldwide. The Project was honored as the “Musical group of the Decade” in Israel in 2010, and the song “Mima’amakim” was selected the “Best Song of the Decade”. As described by The New York Times, “His arrangements bind the voices together in somber minor-mode anthems paced by electronic beats, earnestly seeking to uplift.”
The Project’s blend of African, Latin American, Caribbean and Middle Eastern sounds, coupled with a spectacular live show, has enchanted audiences worldwide. They have headlined in some of the world’s most prestigious venues, including New York’s Central Park Summer Stage, Los Angeles’ Kodak Theater, The Apollo Theater, the Sydney Opera House and Radio City Music Hall. They have also performed across Europe, South & Central America, Hong Kong, India, Ethiopia, South Africa, and Singapore to enraptured audiences of all backgrounds.
I’ll give it a listen, as soon as my computer stops glitching on videos – grrrrr
I meant to tell you if you visit their web site you can listen to their music there.
I used to hear this music for some years in Israel on the radio
It was completely new to me when I heard it yesterday and it blew me away. All the more so since I rarely listen to music these days…
I’m so pleased you enjoyed discovering this artist, I was still humming along to the music from Kazablan & Arik Einstein before I stumbled onto Idan Raichel.
I found more Israeli music on a blog, ‘one israeli song a week’ – http://1israelisong.blogspot.com/
Kerry
Wow Kerry, if you keep at it you might get me to start listening to music again! :-)
Thanks for dropping by, always nice seeing familiar faces here.
thanks, just had a listen off the website. Cool indeed (xxx)
I thought of you right away and was sure you’d like it.
When I initially commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now
each time a comment is added I get three e-mails with the same comment.
Is there any way you can remove me from that service?
Thanks a lot!
I’m really sorry about that, there must be a bug with that particular comment feed, although it’s strange since I haven’t gotten any comments at all on that post in a very long time. For instructions on how to unsubscribe from the comment feed, I found this useful link. Please let me know if there’s anything else I can help you with!
I love your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you make this website yourself or did you hire someone to do it for you?
Plz respond as I’m looking to construct my own blog and would like to find out where u got this from. appreciate it
Thank you for your kind comments. My involvement with my blog’s design was very minimal. I took the Twenty Eleven theme, which at the time was the default WP theme, and used one of my “paintings” (actually a sheet on which I tested colours as I was working on something else) which I scanned or photographed for the main image banner, and that’s it! Don’t know if that helps, but the moral of the story is you can easily get a customized look with WP by adding your own touches to any one of their countless theme options. I have another blog for which I purchased a package to allow me to customize the fonts, for example. I had a look at your blog and it looks very nice by the way!