Music
AB: 10 Jul 2020
Anagnorisis - Asaf Avidan's 7th album
Anagnorisis is a literary term, coined by Aristotle, for that sudden moment of revelation of a character. That moment, which through the unveiling of a previously hidden element of a story's plot, the character is confronted by his or her true identity. Transcending from ignorance into knowledge.
After a 10-year non-stop touring regimen, Asaf, approaching his 40th birthday, decided to take "at least one year off the road", and reflect upon his life, career and art. To experience time and space in a different way than during those years of endless movement and changing views. To live differently and to write differently.
The setting he chose was an old farmhouse in Italy that had been turned into a recording studio/writers-retreat. A lot of green fields and olives, a lot of blue skies, and a lot of quiet and seclusion.
The process would prove to be very different from the past.
While previous albums such as Different Pulses or The Reckoning were penned down in a matter of weeks, something was changing now. It seemed like the presence of nature and silence around him were seeping into his art. Things started to take time. They were cut, groomed, thrown away, replanted. Months went by and the songs were still slowly mutating.
"I remember learning to cut olive branches to prepare the trees for next year. I was astonished to see how much of the tree had to be cut in order to help it live better. Local farmers showed me that by cutting many of the branches, more air was reaching the inside of the tree, more sun, making it stronger and more resilient to parasites and disease. I tried to do the same with my songs. Cut, trim and remove big parts for the song to use its energy to grow stronger roots and a stronger structure. Take time and let the song grow naturally."
The result is remarkably felt. Every song seems to echo with deep roots that search inwards and with structures that seem groomed and precise.
As those roots searched for nutrients, Asaf, tired of the same musical inspiration, started to look into seemingly strange waters: 90's hip-hop, modern pop, gospel music...
"I was listening to Thom Yorke, The Fugees, David Bowie, Old school Jazz, even contemporary pop like Billie Eilish or Kanye West. I would take something from each one and mix it all into a schizophrenic jungle of characters, all working from within myself. Somehow this mixture of characters and sounds was able to tell a clearer picture of how I felt... of who I am... more than just one voice ever could."
In a moment of clarity, Asaf decided that all the voices in the album would be his own. Main vocals, him. Back vocals, him. Harmonies and counter melodies, him. Full gospel choir, men growling, all him. Stacks of dozens of voices recorded again and again to create the effect of many people - all living within his body.
From piercing falsetto, to theatrical baritone, to his famous androgynous drawl... So many techniques and emotions would come together to emphasize the multiplicity of being. The complexity and richness of every moment of life.
To help steer this turbulent ship to shore, Asaf called upon his old musical partner Tamir Muskat (producer of Different Pulses and Gold Shadow).
"I wanted to go back to that small room in Tel Aviv and make the album in the same way we recorded Different Pulses. Just the two of us, alone, building the songs layer by layer and brick by brick. Slowly watching the songs form from the inside out. It's a slow and Sisyphean process, but it fit the feeling of the album"
The album was recorded in segments in that "small room in Tel Aviv", but as the Coronavirus started to wreak havoc and national lockdowns affected their lives, the two were separated. Tamir stayed in Tel Aviv and Asaf in Italy. Instead of giving up the process, they quickly changed their method and found a way to continue the work.
"I would record vocals or a guitar riff and send it over to Tamir for processing. He would send it back and I'd give comments. We would listen to something together and would then take separate hours to work on things, and virtually "meet up" again."
That proved to be an unexpected advantage for Asaf.
"Instead of having studio hours I could start, stop, take a break, continue, do things for hours, again and again, wake up in the middle of the night and record. It was amazing."
It also added that facet of "multitudes" to the album. The vibrant noise of Tel Aviv forging with the serene quiet of Italy's countryside gave the album tension and richness that correspond to the theme of the project.
"While the artist always seeks truth, Art is always a lie. It tries to impose a structure upon what inherently has a chaotic nature. This chaos, this ever-evolving nebula of feelings and thoughts and instances... all working together, all existing simultaneously... that's life."
The true Anagnorisis of this album is that vagueness, the complexity, multiplicity and confusion are all part of the true fabric of our existence.
The revelation is that there is never just one moment of clarity that represents more truth than any other.
Asaf's search to describe his one true self leads to an endless whirlpool of changing tides and currents... And all of them are him.
In the album cover, colored shapeless blobs of vibrant colors are ordered on a black background. The perspective eye can make out - there, between those strong colors - Asaf's silhouette in the negative spaces.
While the artist uses these bursts of strong colors to portray himself, he truly lies in the black mysterious negative of them. These colors, our personalities that we display to the world, are not us, but through them we can create a clearer shape of what it is.
Anagnorisis is a literary term, coined by Aristotle, for that sudden moment of revelation of a character. That moment, which through the unveiling of a previously hidden element of a story's plot, the character is confronted by his or her true identity. Transcending from ignorance into knowledge.
After a 10-year non-stop touring regimen, Asaf, approaching his 40th birthday, decided to take "at least one year off the road", and reflect upon his life, career and art. To experience time and space in a different way than during those years of endless movement and changing views. To live differently and to write differently.
The setting he chose was an old farmhouse in Italy that had been turned into a recording studio/writers-retreat. A lot of green fields and olives, a lot of blue skies, and a lot of quiet and seclusion.
The process would prove to be very different from the past.
While previous albums such as Different Pulses or The Reckoning were penned down in a matter of weeks, something was changing now. It seemed like the presence of nature and silence around him were seeping into his art. Things started to take time. They were cut, groomed, thrown away, replanted. Months went by and the songs were still slowly mutating.
"I remember learning to cut olive branches to prepare the trees for next year. I was astonished to see how much of the tree had to be cut in order to help it live better. Local farmers showed me that by cutting many of the branches, more air was reaching the inside of the tree, more sun, making it stronger and more resilient to parasites and disease. I tried to do the same with my songs. Cut, trim and remove big parts for the song to use its energy to grow stronger roots and a stronger structure. Take time and let the song grow naturally."
The result is remarkably felt. Every song seems to echo with deep roots that search inwards and with structures that seem groomed and precise.
As those roots searched for nutrients, Asaf, tired of the same musical inspiration, started to look into seemingly strange waters: 90's hip-hop, modern pop, gospel music...
"I was listening to Thom Yorke, The Fugees, David Bowie, Old school Jazz, even contemporary pop like Billie Eilish or Kanye West. I would take something from each one and mix it all into a schizophrenic jungle of characters, all working from within myself. Somehow this mixture of characters and sounds was able to tell a clearer picture of how I felt... of who I am... more than just one voice ever could."
In a moment of clarity, Asaf decided that all the voices in the album would be his own. Main vocals, him. Back vocals, him. Harmonies and counter melodies, him. Full gospel choir, men growling, all him. Stacks of dozens of voices recorded again and again to create the effect of many people - all living within his body.
From piercing falsetto, to theatrical baritone, to his famous androgynous drawl... So many techniques and emotions would come together to emphasize the multiplicity of being. The complexity and richness of every moment of life.
To help steer this turbulent ship to shore, Asaf called upon his old musical partner Tamir Muskat (producer of Different Pulses and Gold Shadow).
"I wanted to go back to that small room in Tel Aviv and make the album in the same way we recorded Different Pulses. Just the two of us, alone, building the songs layer by layer and brick by brick. Slowly watching the songs form from the inside out. It's a slow and Sisyphean process, but it fit the feeling of the album"
The album was recorded in segments in that "small room in Tel Aviv", but as the Coronavirus started to wreak havoc and national lockdowns affected their lives, the two were separated. Tamir stayed in Tel Aviv and Asaf in Italy. Instead of giving up the process, they quickly changed their method and found a way to continue the work.
"I would record vocals or a guitar riff and send it over to Tamir for processing. He would send it back and I'd give comments. We would listen to something together and would then take separate hours to work on things, and virtually "meet up" again."
That proved to be an unexpected advantage for Asaf.
"Instead of having studio hours I could start, stop, take a break, continue, do things for hours, again and again, wake up in the middle of the night and record. It was amazing."
It also added that facet of "multitudes" to the album. The vibrant noise of Tel Aviv forging with the serene quiet of Italy's countryside gave the album tension and richness that correspond to the theme of the project.
"While the artist always seeks truth, Art is always a lie. It tries to impose a structure upon what inherently has a chaotic nature. This chaos, this ever-evolving nebula of feelings and thoughts and instances... all working together, all existing simultaneously... that's life."
The true Anagnorisis of this album is that vagueness, the complexity, multiplicity and confusion are all part of the true fabric of our existence.
The revelation is that there is never just one moment of clarity that represents more truth than any other.
Asaf's search to describe his one true self leads to an endless whirlpool of changing tides and currents... And all of them are him.
In the album cover, colored shapeless blobs of vibrant colors are ordered on a black background. The perspective eye can make out - there, between those strong colors - Asaf's silhouette in the negative spaces.
While the artist uses these bursts of strong colors to portray himself, he truly lies in the black mysterious negative of them. These colors, our personalities that we display to the world, are not us, but through them we can create a clearer shape of what it is.
Asaf Avidan about "900 Days":
AB: 21 Aug 2020 - Asaf Avidan about "900 Days":
If there were to be a chronological order to this album, 900 Days would have to be the first song. The closure that it brought me was the jumping board to a new exploration of self. The end of my last relationship left me feeling betrayed. Not by my partner, but by love itself... or more precisely by myself. My notions and ideals left me spiralling downward. Again. I needed to write this song, to capsulate the time in that relationship in order to move forward.
Asaf Avidan about "Lost Horse":
AB: 15 May 2020 - Asaf Avidan about "Lost Horse":
"2019 was a strange year for me, just before it began I was attacked by a wolf which I tried to adopt. Then, some months later, a pack of wolves arrived in the field near my studio and chased Ariadne, my sweet quarter-paint horse, until she finally fell off a cliff to the sea below and was never found.
I was heartbroken and demoralized by my lack of ability to bring her back, to change her fate. The simultaneous grandeur and smallness of that dramatic story of life and death pushed all my buttons.
I came back to my writing studio after hours of fruitless search for her body and opened my notebook and wrote two words - "LOST HORSE" - at the top of a small page...
And then I cried for all the loves I had and lost, for all the times my strength was not sufficient to change the outcome of a life full of finitude. A life filled with endings.
I cried for what seemed to be limitless emotion in a limited world."
All my body's undulating
back and forth but it's too late and
there's no cure and no sedating
this prolonged, insane, grotesque thing
that we wrongly have been naming "Love"
but this ain't love
Pretty soon I will be feeding
on the taps your little feet in
silver boots make when they're fleeing town
and I can't get around to being
much surprised by memories speeding
on the road on which we're bleeding love
Honey, this ain't love
I want you to hold me
Perpendicularly only
A sundial for the gods
We were born... Born to fail
It's Raining cats and dogs, and lightning
strikes my heart and sheds some light on-
to the fact it ain't so frightening
how there hasn't been your pretty sight in
so much time, my teeth are whitening
from the blood we shed while biting love
Honey, this ain't love
I want you to hold me
Perpendicularly only
A sundial for the gods
we were born... Born to fail
Written, Composed and Performed by Asaf Avidan
Produced, Recorded & mixed by Tamir Muskat at Vibromonk East TLV
2nd recording engineer - Omry Amado
Additional recordings by Asaf Avidan at Different Pulses Studios Italy
Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards by Asaf Avidan
Drums, Percussion, Programming by Tamir Muskat
Bass by Itamar Ziegler
Mastered by Vlado Meller at Vlado Meller Mastering
Assisted by Jeremy Lubsey
I was heartbroken and demoralized by my lack of ability to bring her back, to change her fate. The simultaneous grandeur and smallness of that dramatic story of life and death pushed all my buttons.
I came back to my writing studio after hours of fruitless search for her body and opened my notebook and wrote two words - "LOST HORSE" - at the top of a small page...
And then I cried for all the loves I had and lost, for all the times my strength was not sufficient to change the outcome of a life full of finitude. A life filled with endings.
I cried for what seemed to be limitless emotion in a limited world."
All my body's undulating
back and forth but it's too late and
there's no cure and no sedating
this prolonged, insane, grotesque thing
that we wrongly have been naming "Love"
but this ain't love
Pretty soon I will be feeding
on the taps your little feet in
silver boots make when they're fleeing town
and I can't get around to being
much surprised by memories speeding
on the road on which we're bleeding love
Honey, this ain't love
I want you to hold me
Perpendicularly only
A sundial for the gods
We were born... Born to fail
It's Raining cats and dogs, and lightning
strikes my heart and sheds some light on-
to the fact it ain't so frightening
how there hasn't been your pretty sight in
so much time, my teeth are whitening
from the blood we shed while biting love
Honey, this ain't love
I want you to hold me
Perpendicularly only
A sundial for the gods
we were born... Born to fail
Written, Composed and Performed by Asaf Avidan
Produced, Recorded & mixed by Tamir Muskat at Vibromonk East TLV
2nd recording engineer - Omry Amado
Additional recordings by Asaf Avidan at Different Pulses Studios Italy
Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards by Asaf Avidan
Drums, Percussion, Programming by Tamir Muskat
Bass by Itamar Ziegler
Mastered by Vlado Meller at Vlado Meller Mastering
Assisted by Jeremy Lubsey
Asaf Avidan about
"Earth Odyssey":
AB: 10 Apr 2020 - Asaf Avidan about
"Earth Odyssey":
"Earth Odyssey":
Earth Odyssey was not supposed to be a "single". It was intended to be, what the industry calls - an "album track", waiting patiently until the release of the full album later this year.
However - as it did for everyone - the world changed around me, beneath me and inside me in such a dramatic way, that it would be crazy not to react, as an artist, to the present situation.
There was a plan. A meticulously detailed setup of singles, tours, photo-shoots, press releases and at the end of it all - an album. It was a good plan.
But as my grandma used to say in Yiddish - Mensch tracht und Gott lacht. Man makes plans and God laughs.
Our imagined sense of control has crumbled around us in an instant, drowning us in an ocean of uncertainty.
Confined in little spaces, we are disconnected from most of the things we compulsively collected around us in order to give ourselves a sense of meaning.
It's scary and nerve-racking, but it is none the less a step closer to the truth.
The truth that we all are, and always have been, helpless.
Long before Covid-19 and long after it we were always just fragile bodies, slowly
deteriorating, grasping around frantically to try to find meaning.
We are intricate paintings drawn in the sand in the midst of a storm... a momentary
defiance of entropy.
All we can really do is hug ourselves and others in the process.
Embrace that knowledge and not be terrified or crippled by it.
Celebrate it.
Create finite beauty and structure amidst a turmoil of infinite chaos and uncaring. After all, that is the essence of Humanity.
The ability to acknowledge an unmovable truth but to still dare to oppose it.
It is our own personal Odyssey. An earthly one. A human one.
Earth Odyssey was written as an anthem for that inherently human helplessness.
In the past year, after a life-threatening incident with a wolf-dog, and tumbling towards my 40th Birthday, staying isolated in a country house, turned studio - I wrote this song.
Working on it a few days ago from the confinement of my lockdown, it just seemed right to release it now.
However - as it did for everyone - the world changed around me, beneath me and inside me in such a dramatic way, that it would be crazy not to react, as an artist, to the present situation.
There was a plan. A meticulously detailed setup of singles, tours, photo-shoots, press releases and at the end of it all - an album. It was a good plan.
But as my grandma used to say in Yiddish - Mensch tracht und Gott lacht. Man makes plans and God laughs.
Our imagined sense of control has crumbled around us in an instant, drowning us in an ocean of uncertainty.
Confined in little spaces, we are disconnected from most of the things we compulsively collected around us in order to give ourselves a sense of meaning.
It's scary and nerve-racking, but it is none the less a step closer to the truth.
The truth that we all are, and always have been, helpless.
Long before Covid-19 and long after it we were always just fragile bodies, slowly
deteriorating, grasping around frantically to try to find meaning.
We are intricate paintings drawn in the sand in the midst of a storm... a momentary
defiance of entropy.
All we can really do is hug ourselves and others in the process.
Embrace that knowledge and not be terrified or crippled by it.
Celebrate it.
Create finite beauty and structure amidst a turmoil of infinite chaos and uncaring. After all, that is the essence of Humanity.
The ability to acknowledge an unmovable truth but to still dare to oppose it.
It is our own personal Odyssey. An earthly one. A human one.
Earth Odyssey was written as an anthem for that inherently human helplessness.
In the past year, after a life-threatening incident with a wolf-dog, and tumbling towards my 40th Birthday, staying isolated in a country house, turned studio - I wrote this song.
Working on it a few days ago from the confinement of my lockdown, it just seemed right to release it now.
