Your last album, « Aurora », was released a few months ago and appears as a turning point in your career, because you are mainly featured as a singer for the first time.

I’m not really featured as a singer like a pop record where it is totally focused on the singing. There’s a lot of instrumental and space still, but in comparison to what I have been doing until recently, it is completely different. The voice is very apparent, and I am seeking it. I thought that not sharing what I was doing at home wouldn’t have been honest to myself and the people who listen to my music. It was a big risk and I only realized that I am a risk taker afterwards. Although this state of mind has a great asset, the risk of losing people accustomed to my style on the last record. They either think they don’t like anymore or they are just conflicted by it, and it could be a critic or just a fan saying something. I’m noticing that because of the big shift I made but it is really interesting, you study people and things like that, you see how close-minded some people are and how insecurity comes to the plate.

But all in all, it is amazing how great it is still. When you do something that requires courage, you must do it with love by considering new reactions to the changes and the closeness – I think that I am getting closer to some people now as they feel closer to my world, to my voice and to my inner self. This fact is way more important than the reactions of disappointed people who are fewer than what I could imagine. But I never thought too much about it, as I just focused on what I had to do. In my view, « Aurora » is an open door to other things since it gives me the legitimacy to do anything I want without being afraid whether people would like it or not. I have never really played that game. Signing with Blue Note Records and putting out a record for them made me go for the most unexpected thing and it opened a new way for me. Nowadays, shows are different with the presence of vocals and also a rich platter. It makes me think differently by including improvisation, composition, voices and great musicians that I am very lucky to have…even the sky is not the limit and it is a great way to look at things. This is very important to me because anything that has an end means death to me, in terms of creation and imagination.

Nowadays, shows are different with the presence of vocals and also a rich platter

Another interesting element in this album is the language…

Sure, I just express myself in all the languages that I love and have some closeness to : English is almost like my first language, and singing in English is kind of stimulating because it sounds a certain way when you sing it ; Hebrew is my first language, I think I love singing in it the most. And then Spanish, I love Spanish for the music and the different connotations, and I feel very close to that Spanish song I sing, Alfonsina y el Mar, on which I brought my own interpretation to the text – only for that “Aurora” is brilliant, because I think I brought something fresh to that song that has been covered for years and years in the Latin world. It was a very big step for me. I felt very comfortable with my rendition on the bass though, and it gives it that special thing. Ladino is a language that I have mostly learned through my mother, she sings some ladino songs and it is part of the musical landscape of Israel and of Jewish tradition. Some of those melodies I find the most storytelling, like most melodic marvellously carved.

The best artists are the ones who give more importance to imagination

Morenika for instance…

Morenika is a song that everybody knows in Israel, especially the older generation. I guess it was taken from an old Bible text which inspired that song. I don’t know any melody that strong, I was very happy to find a way to sing where it sounds original, it sounds like it is coming from my world. It is not just covering the song as is , but staying very loyal to the basic ingredients of the song and the composition, which is so strong that it sounds like people wrote it together, not one person. Now I sing it, but in my previous records I completed many arrangements for songs that are like Morenika, however solely instrumental. So I have been matured and stimulated by folkloric sounds for a long time.

It seems to me that words and lyrics have a heightened emotional charge when you don’t understand their meaning.

It’s great ! It’s like when I listened to the Beatles when I was a kid, I used to mimic the words, I didn’t even know what they meant, or not all of them. I even enjoy it a little more in that sense because I am totally into the sound of the music. To be honest, words have such meaning, a word is a world, but I see a word as a sound as much as a meaning. I have all the rights to see that, I don’t care if someone tells me “it means this”. The meaning of strong things is that it has more than just one meaning. The best artists, the strongest artists – not only in music – are the ones who give more importance to imagination because it is very boring to know that this is just a tape there [Avishai points at the tape recorder we are using]. But when you make it different then it looks, and it becomes art.

This is precisely the purpose of our project “Europe and culture” at Sciences Po Paris : we are trying to share with people another insight into “Europe” than the mere political one that currently fails to attract them. We chose to highlight Europe through arts.

Politics can sometimes be frustrating. But you are right, to me, art is the best way of looking at what is going on around us in a new light.

By Julie Diebolt, with the help of Cécile Parriat

Read the interview in french : Episode 1 Episode 2

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More about…

  Avishai Cohen

Don’t miss his next concerts in Paris :

November 24th and 25th 2009 – Alhambra, Paris 10e

All European and French tour dates to be found on

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