Asaf Avidan - Anagnorisis

For a long time his voice disturbed me. But the music that accompanied it was so beautiful that I finally got used to it and I realized that the voice and the music were one. We feel the emotions, the tears, the fragility, the overflow of hard knocks and intelligence. And finally, for me this voice is an integral part of the abrasions of the life of the Israeli Asaf Avidan. Anagnorisis is his seventh solo album.

Ana what ? But what is this bizarre title? An anagnorisis is the act of recognizing or "acknowledging". It is the late discovery of an identity that we did not know how to perceive at first glance. It is the act of recognizing by going back to the sources of the error. Aristotle already speaks of it in his work La Poétique. I will let you refer to what Wikipedia says about it because I am continuing on Asaf Avidan's album Anagnorisis.

The Israeli artist wanted here to draw new sources of inspiration by composing ten titles tinged with hip hop, pop, modern music. But his idols, Cohen, Dylan, Neil Young, Tom Waits, Bowie are never far away. He left to record in Tel Aviv and the Italian countryside, in the middle of nowhere. The result is a deep, mature album, a sort of mid-life assessment because Asaf Avidan is now 40 years old.

From Lost Horse we know that the album is a success. Modern rhythm, voice recognizable among a million, almost ethereal music to give way to the suffering of the voice. Lost Horse is a story of losses. And it's already heartbreaking.

Official video of Lost Horse

900 Days is slightly more playful. The sound and the composition are topical. Without a doubt so as not to be left behind by the new wave of young artists. The choirs are magnificent, the keyboards pierce the sound of the programming. Earth Odyssey is the shadow of David Bowie, in the voice, the backing vocals, the guitars, the rhythm, the keyboards programming. It's not Space Oddity it's Earth Odyssey. "Oh no, you're not that strong". A title of golden splendor. The atmosphere of No Words is heavy, the piano is slow as a funeral march. Then comes the drums, bass and several guitars, one of which accompanies the voice. A voice in rupture but alive.

Official video of Earth Odyssey

Anagnorisis (the song) is made of piano, of programming. It is slow too. Like a step back to the discovery of the truth. Go back to find the "recognition". Rock of Lazarus is a hip hop rhythm, almost gloomy, until the explosion of a "Wake Up! Rock of Lazarus". Lots of electronic instruments and programming make this song a strange title but so vibrant and human.

Official video of Anagnorisis

Big bass and rhythm'n'blues backing vocals for this Wildfire with Bowie influences once again. Lots of guitars, drums, bass for a clean track. The bass line won't leave you. The same feeling of strangeness for Indifferent Skies, with a splendid chorus, an always refined composition and choirs of remarkable purity. Refined yes, but the sound and the space are divinely conquered.

Video of Darkness Song

As its name suggests, Darkness Song, is a dark song, of ethereal beauty, fragile, so delicate and with an impalpable lightness because is it not in the dark that we see the light best ? My favorite track from the album. The voice, the choirs and the piano are stunningly elegant and aesthetic. Change of style on I See Her, Don't Be Afraid accompanied by accordion-sounding keyboards, which soon stops to make way for a deafening silence since the album ends here. And we only ask to go back to the beginning to start over because we understand. Anagnorisis.

Video of 900 Days