Ami Shavit : Yom Kippur 1973 Sub Rosa

LP, €20

  • A1 Yom Kippur, Part One 16:40
  • B1 Yom Kippur, Part Two 6:30
  • B2 Yom Kippur, Part Three 9:34

Previously unheard masterpiece of Israeli multimedia artist Ami Shavit. As a professor of both philosophy and art and established kinetic artist in the 1970s, Shavit was fascinated with new and interactive technologies. While mostly focusing on visual art and mixed-media installations, a trip to New York in 1972 introduced him to synthesizers and triggered his curiosity to do some explorations into the world of sound.

Ami’s research was focused on the concept of meditative music that would help people to relax and create a cosy mood associated to the alpha brain waves and biofeedback. Before starting his artistic career, like all Israeli citizens, he had to serve in the army to his personal regret. When in 1973 the Yom Kippur war broke out, Ami was enlisted as an operation officerin charge of evacuating Israeli wounded officers from battlefields to hospitals.

"Some 6000 injured men passed through us during that war", he recalled one year later in an interview. "I witnessed some sights that I can hardly forget. On the one hand I felt that as an artist I had to express the war events, on the other hand I felt that this is an almost impossible mission. Only Goya and Picasso, in his Guernica, addressed this topic successfully."

Yom Kippur is an extraordinary strong piece in which the terrific experiences of war are deeply transmitted to the listener.

Middle Eastern Ambient Experimental