Biography
MEDIA RESOURCES website which has streaming videos, bios, press clippings, images, etc. To view Idan Raichel Videos please click here
While recent headlines are dominated by news of conflict and war in the Middle East, The Idan Raichel Project is an Israeli musical collaborative that has achieved success by looking beyond intercultural differences and celebrating the value of diversity. Led by a young keyboardist, composer and producer named Idan Raichel, The Project’s blend of traditional Ethiopian folk music, Arabic poetry, Yemenite chants, Biblical psalms and Caribbean rhythms with sophisticated production techniques has resulted in an unparalleled musical phenomenon that has already taken Israel by storm, generating multiple number 1 hits and selling over 250,000 copies of its two domestically released albums. On November 7, 2006, the recently formed record label Cumbancha will present the work of The Idan Raichel Project to the rest of the world with the international CD release of The Idan Raichel Project. The tale of the Idan Raichel Project began inauspiciously at the beginning of 2002 in Kfar Saba, Israel. Idan Raichel, a young and inquisitive keyboard player, composer and producer, embarked on this musical adventure in the small recording studio he set up in the basement of his parent’s house. Constantly looking for different and unexpected sounds that would make his eclectic musical vision a reality, Idan began a journey that took him through the cultural melting pot of modern Israel. Since ancient times, this vibrant region on the edge of the Mediterranean has been a crossroads. A doorway between Europe and the Middle East and a destination for people of many faiths for millennia, the land is home to a rich cultural legacy. Because of its open door to immigrants from Jewish communities around the globe, Israel is home to a stew of cultures and traditions, including people of Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, Latin American and Eastern European roots. Yemenite Jews offer traditions that reflect thousands of years of living in the country of Yemen on the southern edges of the Arabian Peninsula. Israel’s Sephardic community consists of people who had incorporated the traditions of Spain, North Africa and the Mediterranean region where they had lived for centuries. The largest immigrant population in Israel consists of Ashkenazi Jews, who had come mostly from Russia and Eastern Europe (Idan’s is himself of Eastern European descent). More recently, over 85,000 Ethiopian Jews now call Israel home after efforts to naturalize this so-called “lost tribe of Israel” through dramatic airlifts in the 1980s and 90s. In addition, there is a large Arab community, which makes up almost 20% of the official total population of Israel. Idan invited musicians and singers from a variety of backgrounds and traditions to his improvised studio. He weaved into his creations Ethiopian, Arabic, South African & Yemenite traditions & lyrics, Eastern folklore and chants as well as biblical psalms. Besides his inspired compositions, Idan also brought to the project a deep understanding of contemporary technology and recording techniques, as well as a passion for traditional instruments and ancient musical textures. With no great expectations, Idan began presenting the demo of his musical explorations to local record companies. While most were too wedded to formula to appreciate what Idan was trying to accomplish in his work, Gadi Gidor, A&R for Helicon Records, instantly heard the potential in Idan’s music and quickly invited him to be part of the Helicon family of artists. The finished album was released at the end of 2002 and the reaction from the Israeli public was overwhelming. With its multicultural influences and implicit message of unity and respect for diversity, The Idan Raichel Project presented for the first time the new face of Israeli popular music. The album generated four number one hits and achieved triple-platinum sales. On their follow-up album in 2005 Mi’Mamakim (Out of the Depths), The Project widened the net of influences to include an even broader musical palate. Once again, the reaction was profound, as an ever-widening audience looked into the mirror of The Project’s music and liked what they saw in the reflection. More number 1 hits ensued, and the popularity of The Idan Raichel Project reached unprecedented heights. Members of the Jewish, Ethiopian and Israeli communities around the world have known about the Idan Raichel Project for a number of years now, and he regularly sells out concerts in large performance venues in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere. In November 2005, for example, the Idan Raichel Project headlined at the renowned Kodak Theater in Los Angeles, the same venue from which the Oscars are televised. The Project also gave two well-received shows at the famed Apollo Theater in Manhattan’s Harlem neighborhood. While in New York, Idan and members of The Project visited a number of schools and churches in Harlem as one of many regular bridge-building efforts the group has undertaken. In January, 2006, The Idan Raichel Project traveled to Ethiopia, the land that had inspired so much of its music. Two of the lead singers of the Project came to Israel as children during the migration of Ethiopian Jews to Israel in the 1980s. The trip marked the first time they had returned to the land of their birth, and it was also the first time an Israeli artist had performed in Ethiopia. The band was happy to learn that their songs “Bo’ee” and “Mi’Ma’amakim” had earned a fair share of radio airplay locally. The Idan Raichel Project opened the Fifth Ethiopian Music Festival in Addis Ababa, sharing the stage with top Ethiopian performers, including the legendary Mahmoud Ahmed. With this international release on Cumbancha, the recordings of The Idan Raichel Project will be available outside of Israel for the first time. Founded by Jacob Edgar, the long-time head of A&R and music research at Putumayo World Music, Cumbancha seeks to present exceptional artists from around the globe whose work merits attention by a wider public. “I believe exposure to music from different parts of the world can help open a doorway to other cultures,” insists Edgar. “Listening to music is an excellent way to make a connection with people who are very different from yourself, and it can create a common ground that overcomes some of the barriers that separate people of different walks of life.” This goal of bringing people together through music is just one of the inspirations behind Edgar’s newly launched Cumbancha, a record label whose mission is to bring some of the world’s most exciting music to a wider audience. The Idan Raichel Project, a compendium of the most notable songs from the Project’s two Israeli albums, will be released on November 7th, 2006 in conjunction with a special Putumayo World Music collection featuring The Idan Raichel Project entitled One World, Many Cultures. The Putumayo album focuses on cross-cultural musical collaborations and also features appearances by Willie Nelson, Ziggy Marley, Taj Mahal, Youssou N’Dour and many others. A portion of the proceeds for One World, Many Cultures will go to support the non-profit organization Search For Common Ground (www.sfcg.org), which works to transform the way the world deals with conflict - away from adversarial approaches and towards collaborative problem solving. The international release of The Idan Raichel Project promises to bring even more renown to this inspirational recording project. Along with the release, The Idan Raichel Project plans to embark on a significant international tour that will bring them back to the United States, Europe and elsewhere to present their powerful and entertaining musical message to new audiences throughout the globe.
.
|
