'Israel' Bands // p 1 of 1

Apifera

Apifera is Yuval Havkin – aka Rejoicer– (keys), Nitai Hershkovits (keys), Amir Bresler (drums) and Yonatan Albalak (bass). Named after a variety of bee-attracting orchid, Apifera create organic-sounding structures, harmonies and arrangements intended to reflect the rich variety and equilibrium of the natural world. Their influences range from the folk music of their home country Israel, to Impressionist composers Ravel and Satie, traditional music from Sudan and Ghana, and the transcendental jazz of Sun Ra.

Working intuitively, the quartet wrote and recorded Overstand mostly live in just three days, and the final album includes minimal overdubbing. “Orchestrating is a big part of our sound,” says Nitai. “We paid a lot of attention to the textures, discussing timbres and temperatures in detail throughout the recording process.”

Each of the ten free-flowing pieces on Overstand evokes an intricate scene or story: on the title track, a fanfare-like melody builds in an echo of a crowd marching across city streets; “Lake VU” sets the scene of an evening stroll across the lake, and “The Pit & The Beggar”, moves like a spiral staircase into a wide abyss, revealing new colors on every turn — at once ethereal and electrifying.

Drawing on real-life spiritual and psychedelic experiences, often intertwined with nature, as a springboard for their music, Apifera showcases a sound “more like a lucid dream than reality”, as Nitai puts it — free, improvisatory, and live.

^{Source bleep.com}

Rejoicer

Yuval Havkin aka Rejoicer is one of Tel Aviv’s busiest producers and founder of the Raw Tapes label, home to Israel’s own beat movement.

He was born in London and moved to Tel Aviv at the age of 5. He began collecting vinyl at the age of 14, and started his way in the music world as a Jungle/Drum&Bass artist in 2006. He later moved on to hip hop, and produced beat tapes under the Guadaloop moniker.

After finding a crew of like minded beat makers from around the city, Rejoicer founded the Raw Tapes Label in 2009.

Since then he released more then 20 albums under all different aliases. In 2011 Rejoicer started the band Buttering Trio with KerenDun and Beno Hendler and released Toast LP. the trio played shows with Oh No & DJ Romes, Black Milk, Peanut Butter Wolf, Hudson Mohawke and more. He has collaborated with Free The Robots, Dudley Perkins & Georgia Anne Muldrow, Bajka, Balkan Beat Box, Ester Rada, Cohenbeats and many more, and continues to be one of Tel Aviv’s most interesting artists

^{Source rawtapesrecords.com}

The Touré-Raichel Collective

The formation and success of The Touré-Raichel Collective, the band led by Israeli keyboardist and songwriter Idan Raichel and Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Touré—icons in their own countries and abroad—is a reminder of the unique power of music to bridge geographic, ethnic, political and religious differences.

Although a collaboration between an Israeli Jew and a Malian Muslim has unavoidable political implications, what inspired Touré and Raichel to work together was not the potential to make a statement; they simply connected as artists and friends seeking to find musical common ground.

 They met for the first time by chance, in 2008 at the Berlin airport, where they expressed mutual admiration and a desire to get together and play. Touré’s father, the late great Ali Farka Touré, was one of Raichel’s musical heroes and inspirations. Raichel invited Touré to Israel, where they assembled a few musicians and convened an unscripted, improvised jam session. The chemistry between Touré and Raichel was instant and profound. They assumed the name The Touré-Raichel Collective and used the material from that first gathering as the basis for their first album, The Tel Aviv Session, which found poignant, musically beautiful common ground between the artists’ cultures.

^{Source cumbancha.com}