www.idanraichelproject.com

 

The Idan Raichel Project burst onto the Israeli music scene in 2002 with an entrancing blend of Ethiopian and Middle Eastern flavors coupled with sophisticated production techniques and a spectacular live show.

The Project was the brainchild of Idan Raichel, a keyboardist, producer and composer from Kfar Saba. As a teenager, he started playing keyboards, and studied jazz in high school. At 18, Raichel entered the Israeli army and performed with the Army rock group. As musical director, he became adept at arrangements and producing live shows.   

After he was discharged, Raichel worked as a counselor at a boarding school for immigrants and troubled youth, where he first became familiar with Ethiopian pop music, listening to artists like Mahmoud Ahmed, Aster Aweke, and Gigi.

Meanwhile, Raichel had become a successful backup musician and recording session player for some of Israel's most popular singers. He began working on a demo recording in a small studio he set up in the basement of his parent's home and was eventually signed by Gadi Gidor at Helicon Records.

His self-titled debut album, The Idan Raichel Project, offered Israelis a haunting sound unlike anything they had heard before. It presented an anonymous composer/producer who adopted elements from various genres and mixed them together to create an "Israeli melting pot." Immediately upon its release, the album shot straight to #1 on the Israeli album sales chart and went on to sell more than triple platinum in Israel alone.

As interest in his unique sound began to grow, demand for live shows increased, and Raichel saw the project as a collaboration between artists who each bring their own musical culture and talents to the stage. Raichel decided to pick seven members in addition to himself who were both versatile and strong individual artists in their own right.

Respected producer and drummer Gilad Shmueli has served as Raichel's right-hand man and closet collaborator and has played an essential role in the development of The Project since its inception.

The Project has featured an array of performers who represent popular Israeli music, including Cabra Casey, an Ethiopian singer born in a refugee camp in Sudan during her parent's journey to Israel; and Mira Anwar Awad, an Arab Israeli singer and actress. Raichel has also invited a number of elder participants who bridge the generational gap and demonstrate the timelessness of the Project's music, such as Shoshanna Damari, an Israeli singer of Yemenite heritage who had been one of Israel's most beloved singers for decades and 76-year old Yihia Tsubara along with his son Shalom Tsuberi.

Members of the Jewish, Ethiopian and Israeli communities around the world have known about the Idan Raichel Project for a number of years now, but he has also developed a solid following in the U.S. and Europe. In 2005, the Idan Raichel Project headlined at the renowned Kodak Theater in Los Angeles, and also gave two well-received shows at the famed Apollo Theater in Manhattan's Harlem neighborhood.

Much like his debut album, Raichel's sophomore project, Out of the Depths, intricately wove together choruses sung in Hebrew with Ethnic verses. It easily became Israel's best selling album that year, pushing more than double Platinum and establishing Raichel as a new type of Israeli pop star.