AN EVENING WITH… ASAF AVIDAN

Asaf Avidan is a unique voice in today’s music scene. Jon Pareles of the New York Times described him as a special hybrid, “An artist that writes like Leonard Cohen, sings like Robert Plant, and has the charisma of a cabaret performer.”, while Bob Boilen of NPR (said to have stopped his car when he first heard Avidan on the radio) writes, “Billie Holiday, Janis Joplin and Bob Dylan are all in there, but they add up to a wholly original sound, with songs that are beautifully written and fervently performed.”

Avidan, A bestselling, Platinum certified, mass followed star across Europe and his native country of Israel, left the continent of America untrodden until just two years ago, and so is significantly less known in the U.S.

Avidan, the son of two diplomat parents, picked up a guitar fairly late in his life, at the age of 26,due to a mythological breakup from his long time girlfriend, which later found his way into his first songs and EP, “Now That You’re Leaving.” Released independently in a few shops in his hometown of Jerusalem, The mini album and Avidan quickly received attention and acclaim, and Avidan began performing across his small country with a guitar and harmonica and his armour piercing voice and lyrics. As the demand for larger shows and a new album grew , he gathered local backing musicians around him and nicknamed them The Mojos. Now, performing and recording as Asaf Avidan & the Mojos, they made 3 successful studio albums (The Reckoning, Poor Boy-Lucky Man, Through The Gale), toured the globe, signed with Columbia Records in Europe, and made a name for themselves as one of the best live performers across Europe.

True to his artistic vision and needs, Asaf decided to pursue his own solo path and try to find new ways to write and explore his emotions without the confinement of genre. The result was Different Pulses, an intimately texted, yet bravely produced self-dissecting introspective album, that explored new horizons and mixed different styles of music ,all held together by Avidan’s words and vocals.

Around the time of it’s release, a strange phenomenon was starting to take place. A fan-made amateur remix of an old song called Reckoning Song\One Day started making waves all across Europe. Despite Avidan’s protests, due to his dislike of the remix, those waves turned into a tsunami that washed across the globe and the song became an international hit peaking number 1 in 14 different countries and selling in excess of 1.5m copies. Timing is everything in life and the new album and the remix both charted and fed back on each other’s success, propelling Avidan’s career to new heights.

Avidan, almost shunning away from commercial success, then followed with another personal album going back to the theme that started him off in music, another breakup. Gold Shadow was a sad lament on what appeared to be a fatalistic one way path from Love into Pain and combined jazz and cabaret together with blues and pop. After finishing the tour for the album some months ago, Avidan decided again to change things around. He’s taking a break from Europe’s embrace and playing in front of thousands of his dedicated fans, instead going to countries where he is less known. This year will see him back in small venues where he’ll be doing what he feels most comfortable doing and winning the hearts of a new audience again.

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