duggup

Jools sent me this video – it made me laugh like a maniac. Press play, watch the video and then we will chat.

OK that was fun wasn’t it? Now press play again and this time listen to the song.  Maybe you should head over to www.myspace.com/orenlavie and actually get it playing in the background.

From the first notes of the tightly compressed Rhodes piano and the beautiful elegance of the chimes you will be  so hooked. I was. The low key delivery of the whispered vocals with the strings filling in the ghaps between verses (the arrangements are so cool).

Have a  listen to the title track from his album  “The Opposite Side of the Sea”,   the tension caused by the strings arrangements reminded me of the way George Martin made the  Beatles songs work by being very very good.

From Wikipedia…

Oren Lavie

Oren Lavie spent his youth in Israel. In 1997 his play Sticks and Wheels and his production of it were awarded the main prizes at the Acco Festival of Alternative Israeli Theatre. The production played in Tel Aviv during 1998. In that year he went to London to study theatre directing at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). After his graduation two of his plays were produced in various London theatres. They already contained several songs written and composed by him.

In 2001 Oren Lavie moved to New York where he tried to make a living by means of various jobs and where he focused on writing songs. When they had piled up he went to Berlin (2003) and started to do recordings, working as his own producer. His first album, The Opposite Side of the Sea, was completed in 2006; it was released in Europe in January and February 2007.

Oren Lavie’s names his musical predecessors as Tom Waits, Jacques Brel, and Leonard Cohen. At the core of his melody-oriented compositions there is always the piano or the guitar with his singing, enriched by string arrangements (cello solo, quartet, chamber orchestra) and various, mainly non-electronical instruments added occasionally, giving each of the songs a unique style and colour.

Highly Recommended (and I so owe you big time Jools)

Website at www.myspace.com/orenlavie or www.orenlavie.com/ (like the video the flash driven sight is entertaining)

thatch is fascinated by guitars, music, guitars, production, silly noises, guitars and used to be a musician. Did I mention the thing about the guitars?
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