YAEL NAIM

YAEL NAIM
YAEL NAIM & DAVID DONATIEN (2007)
320 KBPS

To begin with, this album was meant to focus solely on guitar and vocals. But little by little Yael and David Donatien, who encouraged her to sing in Hebrew, padded out the architecture and formed a team. Xavier Tribolet (drums), Laurent David (bass), Voed Nir (cello) and Julien Feltin (electric guitar) joined them as well as S.Husky Huskolds for the mix (Tom Waits, Fiona Apple, Me’Shell Ndegeocello). The instrumentation is pretty minimalist here yet incredibly colourful with the participation of the brass section, the Mellotron, the cello and some programming. Recorded in the young woman’s flat in Paris the 13 songs contain a part of Yael happy (Endless Song of Happiness) and a melancholic (Paris, Lonely) existence. Some of them, like Yashanti or Lachlom dive into dreams, others like Baboker bathe in the serenity found at the break of day. Shelcha looks at a love with no future. The most outrageous is of course the cover of Britney Spears’ Toxic. Listening to these little marvels could possibly remind us of old friends like Tori Amos or Fiona Apple. Yet the ensemble isn’t witness to excessive borrowing or exaggerated marking, but quite the contrary revealing a sincerity and absolute musical clarity. In fact it is quite astonishing how something that sounds so familiar could seduce our ears with such a nude and original beauty. Perhaps it is due to the dominance of Hebrew, a language so rarely sung in this context, that comes across as universal as Cesaria Evora’s Portuguese Creole? Or is it the simply the very freshness exhaled by the personality of this young woman who discovers in New Soul - sung in English with a contagious optimism – that she is "a new soul, in this foreign world, hoping to learn a little"? "It was when I was really young that I sincerely believed to be an old soul reincarnated and I could even say it gave me a sense of superiority over others. But then as I subsequently did everything the wrong way round I concluded that it was actually my first time on earth and that I should learn to be a more humble." On Far Far, she herself delivers this other perspective, that of a little girl who chases her dreams but who can only achieve them by accepting the "beautiful mess inside". In short both her own personal history and that of this simply magical record.

1. Paris
2. Too Long
3. New Soul
4. Levater
5. Shelcha
6. Lonely
7. Far Far
8. Yashanti
9. 7 Baboker
10. Lachlom
11. Toxic
12. Pachad
13. Endless Song Of Hapiness