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Avishai Cohen
“Aurora”
www.avishaicohen.fr

For those with the patience, Avishai’s newest release, “Aurora” is an incredibly enriching experience. I immediately feared that many would skip ahead after only 30 seconds of each track looking for “the burner” or more aggressive track (which I’m guilty of from time to time myself when checking out a new CD). This album takes it’s time, both as a whole and on a track by track basis but it is a beautiful musical journey from beginning to end. It took me a few listens, but this album is really starting to grab me in a deeply musically satisfied place.
The first thing you will notice is that Avishai is singing here.. on almost every track. Being so familiar with Avishai’s music, it did take me a listen or two to adjust to it. One thing that I found appealing is that he is rarely singing in English. Although I’m sure the lyrics are beautiful, I have always preferred the voice used as another instrument, not necessarily with the use of actual words (one reason why I tend to gravitate towards French and African music… Beautiful languages, but I have no idea what they’re saying, I just know how it sounds). I found the vocal melodies to be wonderfully interleaved voices within the context of the group as a whole. In other words, the music was not forgotten in an attempt to sing a few songs. The writing is as interesting and moving as ever.

I’ve come to overwhelmingly enjoy this album, although in a quite different way than his past works. Avishai has branched out a bit here, but I’m still hearing Avishai grow musically from album to album and being one with such a unique and singular voice, as usual, I can’t wait to hear where he goes next!