Bamidbar

“Bamidbar” means ‘In The Desert’ in Hebrew. It is also the name of the forth book of the Torah (“Book of Numbers”), which describes the 40 years of searching for the land of Israel in the desert, just after the Israelites had fled from Egypt. As the name suggests the music of “Bamidbar” is a path of a musical search for the land of Israel. Israel today is a state of many immigrants (first, second and third generation) mixed with locals and therefore is a center of a cultural encounter.

“Bamidbar” means ‘In The Desert’ in Hebrew. It is also the name of the forth book of the Torah (“Book of Numbers”), which describes the 40 years of searching for the land of Israel in the desert, just after the Israelites had fled from Egypt. As the name suggests the music of “Bamidbar” is a path of a musical search for the land of Israel. Israel today is a state of many immigrants (first, second and third generation) mixed with locals and therefore is a center of a cultural encounter.

This encounter can sometimes be problematic and painful (as you can easily watch on your preferred news channel) but at the same time very fruitful and full of inspiration. “Bamidbar” in a way serves as an inter-cultural bridge in those complex surroundings. The Arabic and African rhythms are mixed with eastern European Jewish melodic roots, spiced up with Indian and sometimes Celtic touches. All these combined with a strong commitment to western classical and jazz music creates a very unique musical stew.

The project is mainly instrumental, but contains a couple of songs in Hebrew, which adds a very special fragrance to the mixture. The ensemble consists of three musicians, each coming from a very different background in music. The compositions are all original and so are the texts involved. “Bamidbar” exists for 3 years now, and have performed in many venues in Israel, and on February 2008 conducted a small tour in France and Germany.

for booking please contact: Barak - +972-(0)50-4044065 Nir - +972-(0)52-2644-712 The band consists of: Nir Popliker - Guitar, Vocals Gavriel Friesem - Percussion Barak Sober - Flute A bit about the song titles: We decided to leave the hebrew phonetics with no real translation to it, since the phonetics are a part of the sound we try to create. Here are some words for each title... have fun :) Ashiko - a name of an african drum gavriel uses Barkan Balkan - just a word game At Va Ani - You and I (addresses a female) Boker - Morning Hayi Imi - Be With Me (in an old fashioned hebrew style) Cna'an - the biblical name for the land of Israel before the Israelites came Ish Rek - An Empty Man Hitorerut - Waking Up Be'ezrat Hashem - With God's Will Se'ara - Storm El Sfat Hanachal - To The Riverbank Eretz Lo Zrua - An Unsown Land User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL..