Biography
The Idan Raichel Project burst onto the Israeli music scene in 2002, changing the face of Israeli popular music and offering a message of love and tolerance that resonated strongly in a region of the world where the headlines are too often dominated by conflict. With an enchanting blend of Ethiopian and Middle Eastern flavors coupled with sophisticated production techniques and a spectacular live show, the Idan Raichel Project has become one of the most unexpected success stories in Israeli music today. While he regularly fills large concert halls at home, the international release of his recordings on the Cumbancha record label promises to introduce the work of this inspirational collective to a wide global audience. Idan Raichel, the architect of this unique recording project, is a 29-year old keyboardist, producer and composer from Kfar Saba, Israel.

Idan was born in 1977 to a family with Eastern European roots, and although music was an important part of his upbringing, his parents did not place much emphasis on performing music from his particular cultural background. “I think the fact that I didn’t have strong family musical roots is what made me be very open to music from all over the world,” says Idan.

He started playing the accordion at the age of 9, and even at this young age was attracted to the exotic sounds of Gypsy music and tango. As a teenager, Idan started playing keyboards, and studied jazz in high school, which honed his skills at improvisation and working with other musicians. In Israel, military service is mandatory for all young men and women, and at 18 Idan was conscripted into the Israeli army. Rather then heading to the front lines in this volatile region, Idan joined the Army rock band and toured military bases performing covers of Israeli and European pop hits. As the musical director of the group, he became adept at arrangements and producing live shows, and turned his experience in the Army into a productive and positive one.

After completing his service, Idan started working as a counselor at a boarding school for immigrants and troubled youth. Notably, the school was filled with young people from Ethiopia who were part of Israel’s growing community of Ethiopian Jews. It was here that Idan first started getting familiar with Ethiopian folk and pop music. While most of the young people in the school rejected their own cultural traditions in an effort to assimilate into mainstream Israeli society, a small core of Ethiopian teenagers remained fans of Ethiopian music. They passed around cassettes of songs from artists like Mahmoud Ahmed, Aster Aweke, Gigi and others, and the exotic, otherworldly melodies piqued Idan’s curiosity. “I started to hear lots of cassettes from Addis Ababa. Village music, like Ethiopian pop and reggae, or the native village songs,” says Raichel. “I noticed that immigrants from the Ethiopian community changed their names when they got to Israel. They try to assimilate into Western culture and don’t keep their roots.” He wanted these kids to “remember that they like hip-hop but they are not from Harlem, they like reggae but they are not Bob Marley.”

Idan began to explore Ethiopian music and culture. He started going to Ethiopian bars and clubs and soon attended Ethiopian synagogues, weddings and ceremonies; his connections to the community deepened. Meanwhile, Idan had become a successful backup musician and recording session player for some of Israel’s most popular musicians. 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 parent’s home. Idan invited over 70 of his friends and colleagues from Israel’s diverse music scene to participate in the recordings. He never expected his musical experiments to turn him into Israel’s biggest musical phenomenon in recent memory.

While most of the Israeli labels considered his work too ethnic and too outside of the norms of the formulaic Israeli pop scene, one A&R man, Gadi Gidor at Helicon Records, instantly heard the potential in Idan’s work and quickly signed him on to the roster. The subsequent album was an immediate hit. The haunting Ethiopian chorus of the first single, “Bo’ee” (Come With Me), sounded completely unlike anything most Israeli’s had heard before, yet, coupled with Idan’s richly poetic lyrics of love and devotion and sophisticated production techniques, the single was a huge success. The album went on to sell over 150,000 copies (triple platinum) and firmly establish Idan as a new type of Israeli pop star.

Interest in the recording began to grow while demand for live shows increased, including an offer from the prestigious Opera House of Tel Aviv. Given the number of musicians who participated in the recordings, it would have been impossible to have them all appear on stage. Idan chose seven members in addition to himself who were both versatile and strong individual artists in their own right. “There would be no front man,” Idan says. “I would sit at the side and watch things and see what occurs. Every song would have a different singer, we would sit in a half circle and each musician would have a chance to demonstrate what they have to offer.” The live show became symbolic of the album, as it brought together a group of people of different backgrounds but each is equal to the other. This sentiment is reflected in the decision to name the collective The Idan Raichel Project. Says Raichel, “If I had called the album just ‘Idan Raichel,’ people would have thought that Raichel is the main voice on all the songs. I wrote the songs and I arranged and produced them, but I perform them together with other vocalists and musicians. On the other hand, we are not a group. It’s something in between.”

In its recordings or on stage, The Idan Raichel Project has featured a fascinating array of participants including Cabra Casey, Mira Anwar Awad and Sergio Braams. Vocalist Cabra Casey is of Ethiopian heritage and was born in a refugee camp in Sudan during her parent’s journey to Israel. She met Idan when they were both serving in the Israeli Army. Mira Anwar Awad, sings on the dramatic Arabic-language track “Azini,” and is an Arab-Israeli who grew up in the northern city of Haifa. She is a well-known singer and actress, and has participated in numerous productions in Israel. Sergio Braams, who sings on the dancehall inflected track “Brong Faya” (Burn Fire) among others, immigrated to Israel from the country of Suriname on the Caribbean coast of South America. Known around the world, especially in circles of Jewish, Ethiopian and Israeli communities, the Idan Raichel Project regularly sells out concerts in large performance venues.

In November 2005, 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. In January 2006, The Idan Raichel Project traveled to Ethiopia, the land that had inspired so much of its music. The trip marked the first time two of the Project’s lead vocalists were able to return to the land of their birth and also the first time an Israeli artist had performed in Ethiopia.

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, and were happy to learn that their songs “Bo'ee” and “Mi’Ma’amakim” had earned a fair share of local radio airplay. The story of the Project’s emotional trip to Israel was filmed for a forthcoming documentary to be released in early 2007. On November 7th, 2006, the work of The Idan Raichel Project was released outside of Israel for the first time on the new record label, Cumbancha. Founded by Jacob Edgar, the longtime 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.

The Idan Raichel Project, a compendium of the most notable songs from the Project’s two Israeli albums, will be released in conjunction with a special Putumayo World Music collection featuring Idan Raichel entitled One World, Many Cultures. The Putumayo album explores cross-cultural musical collaborations and also features appearances by Willie Nelson, Ziggy Marley, Youssou N’Dour and many others. A portion of the proceeds for will go to support the nonprofit 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.

In support of 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. With a powerful live show, The Idan Raichel Project is sure to inspire new audiences throughout the globe.


Discography