Idan Raichel
Encyclopedia
Idan Raichel is an Israeli singer-songwriter
and a musician
, known for his Idan Raichel Project (Hebrew: הפרוייקט של עידן רייכל), distinctive for its fusion
of electronics
, traditional Hebrew texts, Middle Eastern and Ethiopian
music
. Prior to the Project, Raichel was a keyboardist
, collaborating with artists such as Ivri Lider
. He has sold over 300,000 records to date.
. Raichel began to play the accordion at the age of nine. He was attracted to long hair, gypsy music and tango
, and studied jazz piano
in high school, which improved his improvisational skills and ability to collaborate with other musicians.
, as is compulsory for all Israelis of that age. It was in this military setting that Raichel developed musical skills that later proved vital. Raichel joined the Army rock band, touring military bases performing covers of Israeli and Western pop hits. As the musical director of the group, he became adept at arrangements and producing live shows.
and pop music. Whilst many of people in the school rejected their own cultural traditions in an effort to assimilate into mainstream Israeli society, a small core of teenagers remained fans of Ethiopian music, passing around cassettes of songs by Mahmoud Ahmed
, Aster Aweke
and Gigi
. After hearing them, Raichel began to frequent Ethiopian bars and clubs in Tel Aviv
.
In April, 2007, Raichel travelled with Save a Child's Heart
to Rwanda
and Ethiopia.
Early in his career he has been criticized in Israeli media for stealing the music of Ethiopians; leading to a law suit.
Raichel invited 70 different musicians from a wide variety of backgrounds to participate in the recordings now known as the Idan Raichel Project, which includes Ethiopian Jews, Arabs, traditional Yemenite vocalists
, a toaster and percussionist from Suriname
and a South African singer, among others.
Raichel invited seventy of his friends and colleagues from Israel’s diverse music scene to participate in his recordings. Most of the Israeli labels considered his work too "ethnic" and too outside of the norms of the formulaic Israeli pop scene to have any hope of success. But one A&R
man, Gadi Gidor at Helicon Records
, recognized the potential of Raichel’s work and signed him up for an album that became an immediate hit.
released Idan Raichel's first, eponymous album in 2002. 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
, while the opening track also reaches into the depths of Jewish liturgy, with B'rachot L'shanah Chadashah (ברכות לשנה חדשה / "Blessings for a new year") sampling voices reciting traditional Jewish blessings.
Following the popularity of the Project, demand for live shows increased. Raichel was booked to perform at the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center
. Given the number of musicians who participated in the recordings, it would have been impossible to have them all appear on stage, so Raichel selected seven members. This live show became symbolic of the album, as it brought together a group of people of different backgrounds but of equal standing.
(ממעמקים / From the Depths) in 2005, having released the title track at the end of the preceding year. This track, reminiscent of the opening of (traditionally recited by Jews in times of distress or mourning), attracted similar airplay to that of his previous singles.
The first and last tracks on the album, Aleh Nisa Baruach and Ha'er Et Einav, feature the late Israeli singer Shoshana Damari.
In addition to tunes in Hebrew and Amharic, Raichel adds Arabic
(in Azini), Zulu
(in Siyaishaya Ingoma), Hindi
(in Milim Yafot Me'ele), and Yemenite Hebrew to his linguistic repertoire.
In November 2006, a greatest hits
album launched to target an international audience. The Idan Raichel Project is a single CD album published by the new record label Cumbancha and shipped outside Israel to an international audience for the first time. The liner notes
contain English translations of some of the songs while the enhanced CD
contains the band's music videos. The release was coordinated with a special Putumayo World Music
collection featuring Idan Raichel entitled One World, Many Cultures. A portion of the proceeds for One World, Many Cultures will go to support the nonprofit organization Search For Common Ground
, which works to transform the way the world deals with conflict - away from adversarial approaches and towards collaborative problem solving.
In 2007, the Israeli activist group Gush Shalom
, as well as Palestinian and international groups, called for a boycott of Idan Raichel after his participation in a celebration of the Israeli settlement block Gush Etzion
.
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
and a musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
, known for his Idan Raichel Project (Hebrew: הפרוייקט של עידן רייכל), distinctive for its fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
of electronics
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
, traditional Hebrew texts, Middle Eastern and Ethiopian
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
. Prior to the Project, Raichel was a keyboardist
Keyboardist
A keyboardist is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instruments with keyboards have come into common usage, requiring a more...
, collaborating with artists such as Ivri Lider
Ivri Lider
Ivri Lider is an Israeli pop rock singer-songwriter. He is one of the biggest-selling contemporary artists in Israeli music, and has won the Male Singer of the Year honor from major Israeli national and local radio stations since entering the Israeli music scene in the late 1990s...
. He has sold over 300,000 records to date.
Early life
Idan Raichel was born in Kfar Sava, IsraelIsrael
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. Raichel began to play the accordion at the age of nine. He was attracted to long hair, gypsy music and tango
Tango music
Tango is a style of ballroom dance music in 2/4 or 4/4 time that originated among European immigrant populations of Argentina and Uruguay . It is traditionally played by a sextet, known as the orquesta típica, which includes two violins, piano, double bass, and two bandoneons...
, and studied jazz piano
Jazz piano
Jazz piano is a collective term for the techniques pianists use when playing jazz. The piano has been an integral part of the jazz idiom since its inception, in both solo and ensemble settings. Its role is multifaceted due largely to the instrument's combined melodic and harmonic capabilities...
in high school, which improved his improvisational skills and ability to collaborate with other musicians.
Military service
At 18, Raichel went into the Israeli armyIsrael Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
, as is compulsory for all Israelis of that age. It was in this military setting that Raichel developed musical skills that later proved vital. Raichel joined the Army rock band, touring military bases performing covers of Israeli and Western pop hits. As the musical director of the group, he became adept at arrangements and producing live shows.
Counselling career
Following his military service, Raichel became a counselor at a boarding school for immigrants and troubled youth. The school was attended by many young Ethiopian Jews, who introduced him to Ethiopian folkMusic of Ethiopia
The music of Ethiopia is extremely diverse, with each of Ethiopia's ethnic groups being associated with unique sounds. Some forms of traditional music are strongly influenced by folk music from elsewhere in the Horn of Africa, especially Somalia. However, Ethiopian religious music also has an...
and pop music. Whilst many of people in the school rejected their own cultural traditions in an effort to assimilate into mainstream Israeli society, a small core of teenagers remained fans of Ethiopian music, passing around cassettes of songs by Mahmoud Ahmed
Mahmoud Ahmed
Mahmoud Ahmed is an Ethiopian singer of Gurage ancestry.-Biography:Born in Addis Ababa, Mahmoud shined shoes in that city before becoming a handyman at the Arizona Club, where he first sang professionally in the early 1960s...
, Aster Aweke
Aster Aweke
Aster Aweke is an Ethiopian singer who lives in the United States. She is sometimes referred to as Ethiopia’s Aretha Franklin.Aweke was born in 1961 in Gondar, Ethiopia, and was raised in the capital city of Addis Ababa...
and Gigi
Gigi (singer)
Ejigayehu Shibabaw, or Gigi as she is popularly known, is one of the most successful contemporary Ethiopian singers worldwide. Coming from an ancient tradition of song originating in the Ethiopian Church, she has brought the music of Ethiopia to wider appreciation and developed it in combination...
. After hearing them, Raichel began to frequent Ethiopian bars and clubs in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
.
In April, 2007, Raichel travelled with Save a Child's Heart
Save a Child's Heart
Save a Child's Heart is a humanitarian organization with a mission to improve the quality of pediatric cardiac care for children from developing countries who suffer from heart disease, and who cannot get adequate medical care in their home countries. It also works to create centers of pediatric...
to Rwanda
Rwanda
Rwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...
and Ethiopia.
Musical career
At the same time, Raichel had become a successful backup musician and recording session player for some of Israel’s most popular singers. After a few years of this he decided it was time to pursue a project that reflected his musical ideals, and began working on a demo recording in a small studio he set up in the basement of his parents' home in Kfar Sava. He thought it would be a good idea to invite a number of different singers and musicians to participate, in order to better demonstrate his different styles and the ways in which he worked with a variety of artists.Early in his career he has been criticized in Israeli media for stealing the music of Ethiopians; leading to a law suit.
Raichel invited 70 different musicians from a wide variety of backgrounds to participate in the recordings now known as the Idan Raichel Project, which includes Ethiopian Jews, Arabs, traditional Yemenite vocalists
Music of Yemen
Yemen is a country on the Arabian Peninsula, and the music of Yemen is primarily known abroad for a series of pan-Arab popular stars and the Yemenite Jews who became musical stars in Israel during the 20th century. In the Arab world, Yemen has long been a cultural capital.Yemen's national anthem is...
, a toaster and percussionist from Suriname
Suriname
Suriname , officially the Republic of Suriname , is a country in northern South America. It borders French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, Brazil to the south, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean. Suriname was a former colony of the British and of the Dutch, and was previously known as...
and a South African singer, among others.
Raichel invited seventy of his friends and colleagues from Israel’s diverse music scene to participate in his recordings. Most of the Israeli labels considered his work too "ethnic" and too outside of the norms of the formulaic Israeli pop scene to have any hope of success. But one A&R
A&R
Artists and repertoire is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists. It also acts as a liaison between artists and the record label.- Finding talent :...
man, Gadi Gidor at Helicon Records
Helicon Records
Helicon Records is a record label which was founded in Israel in 1985.Aside from being the label of many Israeli artists, Helicon is also the exclusive distributor of Snapper Music, EMI and Universal Music Group in Israel, which includes artists like Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Kanye West, Guns n'...
, recognized the potential of Raichel’s work and signed him up for an album that became an immediate hit.
The Idan Raichel Project (2002)
Helicon RecordsHelicon Records
Helicon Records is a record label which was founded in Israel in 1985.Aside from being the label of many Israeli artists, Helicon is also the exclusive distributor of Snapper Music, EMI and Universal Music Group in Israel, which includes artists like Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Kanye West, Guns n'...
released Idan Raichel's first, eponymous album in 2002. 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
Song of songs
Song of Songs, also known as the Song of Solomon, is a book of the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament. It may also refer to:In music:* Song of songs , the debut album by David and the Giants* A generic term for medleysPlays...
, while the opening track also reaches into the depths of Jewish liturgy, with B'rachot L'shanah Chadashah (ברכות לשנה חדשה / "Blessings for a new year") sampling voices reciting traditional Jewish blessings.
Following the popularity of the Project, demand for live shows increased. Raichel was booked to perform at the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center
Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center
The Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center is a performing arts center at King Saul Boulevard in Tel Aviv, Israel. It was designed by Israeli architect Jacob Rechter....
. Given the number of musicians who participated in the recordings, it would have been impossible to have them all appear on stage, so Raichel selected seven members. This live show became symbolic of the album, as it brought together a group of people of different backgrounds but of equal standing.
Mi'ma'amakim (2005)
Idan Raichel released his second album, Mi'ma'amakimMi'ma'amakim
Mi'ma'amakim is the second album by The Idan Raichel Project, released in 2005 in Israel.The title track, reminiscent of the opening of , attracted similar airplay to that of his previous singles....
(ממעמקים / From the Depths) in 2005, having released the title track at the end of the preceding year. This track, reminiscent of the opening of (traditionally recited by Jews in times of distress or mourning), attracted similar airplay to that of his previous singles.
The first and last tracks on the album, Aleh Nisa Baruach and Ha'er Et Einav, feature the late Israeli singer Shoshana Damari.
In addition to tunes in Hebrew and Amharic, Raichel adds Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
(in Azini), Zulu
Zulu language
Zulu is the language of the Zulu people with about 10 million speakers, the vast majority of whom live in South Africa. Zulu is the most widely spoken home language in South Africa as well as being understood by over 50% of the population...
(in Siyaishaya Ingoma), Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
(in Milim Yafot Me'ele), and Yemenite Hebrew to his linguistic repertoire.
International release (2006)
Greatest hits
A greatest hits album is a music compilation album of successful, previously released songs by a particular artist or band...
album launched to target an international audience. The Idan Raichel Project is a single CD album published by the new record label Cumbancha and shipped outside Israel to an international audience for the first time. The liner notes
Liner notes
Liner notes are the writings found in booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for vinyl records and cassettes.-Origin:...
contain English translations of some of the songs while the enhanced CD
Enhanced CD
Enhanced CD, also known as CD Extra and CD Plus, is a certification mark of the Recording Industry Association of America for various technologies that combine audio and computer data for use in both Compact Disc and CD-ROM players....
contains the band's music videos. The release was coordinated with a special Putumayo World Music
Putumayo World Music
Putumayo World Music is a New York City based record label, now specialising in compilations of music from various nations, regions or musical styles which may be classified as world music.-Etymology:...
collection featuring Idan Raichel entitled One World, Many Cultures. A portion of the proceeds for One World, Many Cultures will go to support the nonprofit organization Search For Common Ground
Search for Common Ground
Search for Common Ground is an international non-profit organization operating in nearly 30 countries whose mission is to transform the way the world deals with conflict – away from adversarial approaches toward cooperative solutions. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with the majority of...
, which works to transform the way the world deals with conflict - away from adversarial approaches and towards collaborative problem solving.
In 2007, the Israeli activist group Gush Shalom
Gush Shalom
Gush Shalom is an Israeli peace activism group founded and led by former Irgun and Knesset Member and journalist, Uri Avnery, in 1993...
, as well as Palestinian and international groups, called for a boycott of Idan Raichel after his participation in a celebration of the Israeli settlement block Gush Etzion
Gush Etzion
Gush Etzion is a cluster of Israeli settlements located in the Judaean Mountains directly south of Jerusalem and Bethlehem in the West Bank, Palestinian territories. The core group includes four agricultural villages that were founded in 1940-1947 on property purchased in the 1920s and 1930s, and ...
.
Within My Walls (2008)
His third studio album, named Ben Kirot Beyti was released on November 20, 2008. The album is a collaboration with many world musicians, and has so far been certified platinum, with over 40,000 copies sold.Albums
| Year | Album | Israel Certificate | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | The Idan Raichel Project The Idan Raichel Project (album) The Idan Raichel Project is the self-titled debut album by Idan Raichel. Raichel composed and arranged many of the tracks, performs vocals and plays the keyboard, while collaborating with other vocalists and musicians... |
3x Platinum | 120,000+ |
| 2005 | Mi'ma'amakim Mi'ma'amakim Mi'ma'amakim is the second album by The Idan Raichel Project, released in 2005 in Israel.The title track, reminiscent of the opening of , attracted similar airplay to that of his previous singles.... |
3x Platinum | 120,000+ |
| 2006 | The Idan Raichel Project (International) | N/A | N/A |
| 2008 | Ben Kirot Beyti | Platinum | 40,000 |
| 2011 | Traveling Home | N/A | N/A |
External links
- The Idan Raichel Project Official English Website.
- MP3Music.co.il has Hebrew lyrics for many of Idan Raichel's songs
- Curriculum based on several of Idan Raichel's songs
- Idan Raichel interviewed on Al Jazeera English (YouTube)
- National Public Radio Interview: Israeli Musicians Find Unity in Cultural Fusion
- Idan Raichel page on Israstage and all Idan Raichel Israeli events