private/Acum
Avital Raz : Strange Love Songs (IS,2007)****'
When having toured as a young child with a children’s choir and further classical training, from early music to avant-garde, she decided to study an additional six years of Druphad vocal music in India. It took her to a variety of experiences before she returned home and settled down her thoughts and feelings, into a personal song album, in close cooperation with guitar player and devoted sitar student Itzik Yona. It contains the intentions of ragas like moods that give structure to her experiences in lyrical poetry and with it associated improvised emotions, inspirations derived after a disappointed love affair, and where each previous influence that has led to this moment, comes back spontaneously like a feedback in style and mood, from western song expression to Indian wonder, mixing the bliss moments of experiences with the sad turnouts, the beauty of wonders and the richness from the building up of abilities in noticing different ways of expressions. The taught experiences are now engaged more loosely and spontaneously into these songs, with smooth rhythms, delicate guitar picking moods, and Indian flute. “Weep” arranged with overdubbed vocals shows spiritual and emotional strength, and places herself as a troubadour who had just travelled around. This seems to be a 16th century piece. A recommended delicate document, sweet in character.
