ASAF AVIDAN explains why the opposite of ascent does not have to mean crash

22. November 2017

Asaf Avidan

ASAF AVIDAN explains why the opposite of ascent does not have to mean crash

Asaf Avidan is no newcomer to the songwriting scene, but with his new album "The Study On Falling" he dares to make a new start. This not only applies to his voice, which was once confusingly similar to Janis Joplin's, but has now become an androgynous trademark, which is associated solely with the name Asaf Avidan. Never before has the Israeli bard with his still unusually high timbre sounded so haunting as on this CD. The topic of failure is only one of several aspects. With "Falling" he takes up a very topical problem, because globally as well as in many biographies the topic of stumbling and failure seems to play an increasingly central role. "There are many facets to falling," says Avidan.

"The political dimension certainly cannot be dismissed. It's deeper for me, though. The psychological fear of falling is often much more existential than falling itself. We all associate falling too often with the final collapse. I wanted to recast the subject. My last album was about a broken relationship. After this crisis I felt that I would make the same mistakes again and again if I didn't completely redefine the term relationship for myself. Suddenly my failure made sense. Failure can be the end, but it can also be the beginning of something new. Since then I've been thinking a lot about failure and try to reflect this on the album. I am much more concerned with the aspect of getting up when falling. These are almost all sad songs on the album, but I hope they also have a hint of hope in them."

Avidan came to the surprising conclusion that life from birth was a process of continuous falling. We constantly search for points, he says, which we can hold on to, invent father and mother figures and settle down in landscapes that softly catch us in the fall. But falling is also a form of letting go. All these insights were elementary for the emotionally charged singer and had a direct impact on the sessions of "The Study On Falling". The recordings were made in a Californian studio directly on the Pacific coast. It was a kind of open glass dome in which one felt directly connected to the outside world. "I find it healing to feel the power of nature. Of course, beauty is a category of the human value system, but when you stand in front of the ocean, you not only feel your own tinyness, but you are also overwhelmed by the feeling that the ocean doesn't need you at all to be beautiful."

Lest mehr im eclipsed Nr. 196 (12-2017/01-2018).