Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
First impressions are important, and within the first seconds of listening to this I simultaneously got hooked and fell in love. “Her Morning Elegance” is the opening track, with rising strings, vibraphone, barely-there drums and fragile melodies: compelling and absorbing. The lone voice is clear, but sounds as if he’s hardly trying to be heard. That bare, intimate voice is that of Oren Lavie; a man with a more interesting life story than most: the Israeli born musician taught himself to play piano, and moved to London to write plays. After two of his productions were brought to the stage he moved to New York and learnt guitar due to the absence of space for his piano. Songs were accumulating fast, so he found himself in Berlin, a place to disappear and record his songs at his own pace.
The result is this collection of stunningly beautiful songs, on the hushed side of quiet, which latch onto your ears and heart. Think Jose Gonzalez but more complex, delicate layers of sound. The semi-acoustic arrangements really capture a moment of time, a feeling, a thought. A lusciously deep acoustic guitar hypnotises in “Trouble Don’t Rhyme” – a simple, reassuring tune with unusual melodies and every note in its right place. Oren Lavie’s sensual tone of voice, is mellowed out, calm and assured. He doesn’t need to announce the chorus, the songs just flow and the layers that he painstakingly recorded bit by bit roll along with the perfectly written lyrics – rhymes that bring rhythm, accomplished and poetic: placed to enhance the intimate mood that is reflected throughout.
It’s a hard record to describe. Unlike any of the current sweep of emo-shit, this is a man who has taken his time, isn’t in any rush, and has produced his own album to sound how it should sound. He’s not worried about fashions and scenes, he doesn’t need to be like anyone else, this is his work, completely personal and perfect. Mature, like a fine wine. Good things come to those who wait.
- Subba-Cultcha
Discography
Still working on that hot first release.
Photos
Bio
OREN LAVIE – BIO
Oren Lavie’s debut album, THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE SEA, has been released in early 2007 to enthusiastic reviews in the UK, Germany and Austria.
“An outstanding debut album sung with the sweetest of voices, rich textures and melodies, crafted with a unique songwriting style.”
Subba-cultcha UK
“A theatrical album of magical qualities and hidden meaning…”
Maverick UK – 4 Stars
“The Beatles, Nick Drake and Crosby, Stills & Nash are some of the pleasant associations filling my senses as I listen to the debut album of Oren Lavie, and being astonished again and again and again.
…this debut album is, in all seriousness, on its way to become a classic.”
Glitterhouse Germany
Oren Lavie was born in Tel-Aviv, 1976. He began his career as a playwright and theatre director with his debut play at the age of 21, for which he won the first award at the Israeli National Theatre Festival in Acco.
He subsequently moved to London to attend the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts and proceeded to write and direct two new plays on London Off-West End stages, both produced to critical acclaim, the first of which named one of the best five plays in London by the London TIMEOUT magazine during its 1999 extended run.
In 2000 Oren moved to NYC to develop and rehearse new work with the Manhattan Classic Company and The SCR in Orange County.
But NY marked a turning point in his creative focus as he gradually found himself returning to music. Being an accomplished pianist and composer he began to work on a collection of songs, each song written as if it were a dreamy scene in a movie a short story, evoking the feeling of secrecy, populated with semi transparent characters framed in hidden bedrooms, in the landscapes of imaginary cities, all rich with atmosphere and detail.
In 2003 Oren moved to Berlin where he began recording the songs under the title The Opposite Side Of The Sea.
The album’s bare, acoustic arrangements and Lavie’s intimate performance create a feeling of music recorded in Black & White. Oren's striking, warm voice carries his lyrics calmly and with dry simplicity underlining unique language and a surgical accuracy of rhyme.
‘The Opposite Side Of The Sea’ is a collage of beautiful, fragile melodies as much as it is the raw, uncompromising presence of a distinct voice. It is a wide landscape locked in a small room, a bright blue sky with clouds approaching.
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