Musical Career
After working as a backup musician and recording session player for some of Israel’s leading singers, he began working on a demo recording in a small studio he set up in the basement of his parents' home in Kfar Sava. He invited other singers and musicians to participate to create an amalgam of different styles.
As part of the Idan Raichel project, he brought together 70 musicians from a wide variety of backgrounds, including Ethiopian Jews, Arabs, traditional Yemenite vocalists, a toaster and percussionist from Suriname and a South African singer, among others. Gadi Gidor of Helicon Records recognized the potential of Raichel’s work and signed him up for an album that became an immediate hit.
Helicon released Raichel's first, eponymous album in 2002. Raichel composed and arranged many of the tracks, performs vocals and plays the keyboard while collaborating with other vocalists and musicians. Hit singles include Boi (בואי / "Come"), Im Telech (אם תלך / "If you go") and M'dab'rim B'sheket (מדברים בשקט / "Speaking Quietly").
As demand for live shows increased, Raichel was booked to perform at the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center. Given the number of musicians who participated in the recordings, it would have been impossible to have them all appear on stage, so Raichel selected seven members.
Raichel released his second album, Mi'ma'amakim (ממעמקים / From the Depths) in 2005, after releasing the title track at the end of the preceding year. This track was reminiscent of the opening of Psalm 130 (traditionally recited by Jews in times of distress or mourning). The first and last tracks, Aleh Nisa Baruach and Ha'er Et Einav, feature the Israeli singer Shoshana Damari. In addition to tunes in Hebrew and Amharic, Raichel adds Arabic (in Azini), Zulu (in Siyaishaya Ingoma), Hindi (in Milim Yafot Me'ele), and Yemenite Hebrew to his linguistic repertoire.
In November 2006, a greatest hits album was launched to target an international audience. The Idan Raichel Project is a single CD album published by the record label Cumbancha and shipped outside Israel to an international audience for the first time. The liner notes contain English translations of some of the songs while the enhanced CD contains the band's music videos. The release was coordinated with a special Putumayo World Music collection featuring Idan Raichel entitled One World, Many Cultures. A portion of the proceeds for One World, Many Cultures went to support the nonprofit organization Search for Common Ground, which works to transform the way the world deals with conflict, away from adversarial approaches and towards collaborative problem solving.
In 2007, the Israeli activist group Gush Shalom called for a boycott of Idan Raichel after his participation in a celebration at Gush Etzion.
His third studio album, Ben Kirot Beyti, released on November 20, 2008, was a collaboration with many world musicians.
Since their chance meeting at an airport in 2008, Raichel and Vieux Farka Touré, son of Ali Farka Toure, have formed The Touré-Raichel Collective, a collaboration of Malian and Israeli music.
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