{"id":18885,"date":"2012-04-21T05:00:20","date_gmt":"2012-04-21T12:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=18885"},"modified":"2015-02-07T02:16:48","modified_gmt":"2015-02-07T09:16:48","slug":"yair-yona-world-without-curtains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=18885","title":{"rendered":"Yair Yona – World Behind Curtains"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Yair Yona\/Photo: Ayelet Dekel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He\u2019s a traveler, and with his guitar tells the tale of a journey, notes and chords swelling into a river of sound. You flow with it, go where it takes you, then he takes you to the source, the chords that permeate the spirit, reverberate in your mind. Yair Yona launched his new album \u201cWorld Behind Curtains\u201d (Anova Label<\/a>) at the Ozen Bar last Thursday, April 22, 2012, sharing his stories with the audience, and sharing the stage with friends – musicians Idit Mintzer, Albert Beger, and his Farthest South<\/a> band mates Yair Etziony and Barry Berko.<\/p>\n

What would a world without curtains, without barriers, feel like? Open, contemplative, intense, funny, surprising, rhythmic, melodic, intimate and political \u2013 Yona\u2019s music takes us there, with references to musical and cultural influences, and a sense of adventure and experimentation that is open to experiencing and discovering that which is unknown and far from understood.<\/p>\n

Listening to\u00a0 “It’s Not the Heat (It’s the Humidity)” – the music expresses something that is quintessentially Tel Aviv. The air simmering shimmering on people, buildings, sidewalks and sea, the heat and everything that lays heavy in this light.
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The songs on the album reflect Yona\u2019s diverse interests and influences \u2013 from Leo Kottke<\/a> and Glenn Jones<\/a>, to a song inspired by the word \u201cValhalla\u201d he heard for the first time when he was 16 at a Led Zeppelin concert, to Texan Westerns, Balkan and gypsy music, Tom Waits, and Channel 8 documentary films. Eclectic, indeed. How do you explain an acoustic instrumental guitarist who forms an \u201call-improvised kraut\/noise\/psych band\u201d like Farthest South? You don\u2019t analyze, you just sit back and enjoy.<\/p>\n

Idit Mintzer joined Yair with a soulful trumpet on \u201cThis One\u2019s for You, Glenn Jones,\u201d a tribute to one of Yona\u2019s influences and later in the set another musician friend \u2013 Albert Beger<\/a>, joined Idit and Yair onstage for \u201cMad About You.\u201d Yair introduced Albert, saying that six years ago he encountered the \u201cIsraeli musician who has been a mentor to me and a source of inspiration, in his freedom to create, imagination, and daring.\u201d
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\nFarthest South reflects Yair\u2019s ongoing engagement with the social-political aspects of life in Israel. The ensemble was formed in August, during the social protests, with Yair Etziony and Barry Berko, as the three musicians sought to express their critique through music. The two joined Yair onstage for \u201cExpatriates,” which conveys the sense of searching and struggle – and, as Yair said at the Ozen Bar, \u201cWe are all actually exiles, and there is no one place that is home.\u201d<\/p>\n

This lo-fi video was played and recorded live, with Or Bahir on electric guitar who also mixed the track \u2013 Enjoy!
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\u201cWorld Behind Curtains\u201d can be purchased through Yair Yona\u2019s website<\/a>, listen to his radio program Sonar<\/a>, read his blog Small Town Romance<\/a>, listen to Farthest South<\/a> and\u00a0 check out his new free jazz & improv label OutNow Recordings<\/a> with Ido Bukelman and Yoni Kretzmer, and follow, follow, follow this troubadour of our time and place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He\u2019s a traveler, and with his guitar tells the tale of a journey, notes and chords swelling into a river of sound. You flow with it, go where it takes you, then he takes you to the source, the chords that permeate the spirit, reverberate in your mind. Yair Yona launched his new album \u201cWorld […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18885\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}