Come on a musical journey with violinist and multi-instrumentalist YONATAN MILLER that explores the sounds and rhythms of life as experienced in Israel in the 90’s when most of it was recorded. These recordings seek to combine the elements of Middle Eastern sounds and experiences blended with the ideas that are influenced and inspired by the desert, the sky, the wind… and passion. Over a period of several years, a parade of friends and guest musicians came through a small home studio located on a MOSHAV in the center of ISRAEL. Some of these were controlled jams with several players improvising together, and other times, the multi-layering of musical textures and emotions. The recordings, done over a long period of time were characterized by late night jams in a party atmosphere and the expression of joy through music, the appreciation of life, and the will to communicate that further down the line, through the vibrations that we send through the air. All was done in a spirit of peace and love and with hope that a real and lasting peace may reach the Middle East and indeed, the entire world. Track 1, Years of Turmoil, is like a conversation with the elements of wind (clarinet), air (violin – string) and earth (clay pot masterfully played by Marsel Ifergan), each seemingly speaking in a separate voice, sometimes one trying to drown out the other, sometimes in harmony but always striving towards a resolution, even when there are discrepancies, as in real life conversation, where we must sometimes take a breath, or pause to gather our thoughts. And as in real life, when distortion threatens to destroy the mood, we must try to blend it all together to create one unified message. Track 2, BeKef. BeKef is an Arabic/Hebrew hybrid word meaning in fun, or for fun. Kef can also be a synonym for hashish, or getting high. We had a lot of fun layering the various Middle-Eastern, African and South American rhythms. As a counter to the rhythms I sought out something playful that could dance over the tips of the waves, so to speak and I settled on the sound of the tenor recorder that had some depth but with the way that you need to breathe into it to create the sound, it followed the pattern of a human voice, “word surfing” over the peaks and valleys of the various rhythm instruments. I especially liked the element of the bongo that comes in at the end, and “wraps things up” nicely. Track 3, Desert Breeze, started from a crazy idea I had to do music for massage. It started out with me stringing together a bunch of microphone cables and recording an entire reel of ¼” magnetic tape (old school analog recording). These reels were a half hour long and what I did was stick a mike stand near a tree in which I had hung a wind chime. Over time, this piece had a multitude of tracks that were recorded and subsequently erased as I searched for the “message” and theme but it turned out that it (I had originally titled this “A Windy Day”) developed naturally as a given day might, the various elements piping in as an uninvited guest, a conversation with your children, a rooster crowing or a shadow slowly shifting as the sun gets higher in the sky. So the wind chimes were, you could say, played by the wind, or by God, if you like. Their changing rhythm is a constant as it develops, and the improvisations were able to pick up on the changing rhythms and ebb and flow as the heavy breeze that was on that day (I remember waking up and hearing the wind and deciding “Okay, today is the day …). There are also some surprise elements you might pick up on in the background, birds, a horse walking by, an airplane flying overhead… The piece wound up being 23 minutes long but I am making it available for the price of a regular track. Please enjoy. Track 4, Clay Kalut. The word Klee, in Hebrew, means tool, object, or musical instrument. Klay Neginah means literally “tools of playing”, or musical instruments. And Clay is what God made Adam and Eve out of, according to the book of Genesis, and is also what that rhythmic instrument is made out of that you can hear in the background, a clay pot with strategically placed holes. So Klay Kalut means “the height of simplicity” or maybe “easy as pie” (or easy as clay, simple as clay, or … simply clay!). So this play on words actually started out as part of a larger piece but in the end I really liked this little section, the playful clarinet improvising over the percussive jam, simple, and fun. Track 5, Miles Away, is a sort of homage to Miles Davis. Actually it was his album Tutu that he had released around that time (that I must have listened to a lot) and I was taken by its simple yet energetic jams, and this kind of reminded me of it. Plus the fact that I used the synthesizer as a sort of percussive sound (despite that I am not really a “keyboardist” but I liked the juxtaposition of seemingly high energy with a kind of relaxing vibe even though it gets a little crazy at times. That other stringed instrument you hear with the wah-wah is actually an electric mandolin. Track 6, PITME, is a prayer for peace. PITME means peace in the middle east and I was going to give that name to the whole project, originally. The words you hear (this is the only track with lyrics or spoken words) in the beginning are Matay Yihye Shalom literally “when will there be peace?”. I made some creative use of a VCR and used sounds that I had recorded from the television, the news specifically. There is the sound of a Katyusha rocket that had landed near some reporters during the Lebanon War. The newscaster is repeating the phrase Asrot Harugim U’ptzuim literally “dozens of dead and wounded” This was more like a collage, than a musical arrangement but it was heartfelt and I was very glad with the result. There are different varying elements to this and if you contact me I’d love to answer any questions about this piece. A funny anecdote is that I sent this piece to a very well known Israeli radio personality that had a show in which they played new music. I had really wanted them to play this on the show. I had someone play it for them and the answer that I got was that this track was “too good to be on the radio”. Whatever that means. Anyway there still is not peace and I am planning to move back to Israel so I am adding this prayer for peace for the current and future generations. Yonatan Miller, October 2011 Your comments are welcome at myspace.com/yonatanmiller youtube.com/yonatanmiller1 yonatanmiller@hotmail.com