Radio Eshkolot

Recently New York-based musician Zisl Slepovitch delivered a series of talks on Jewish music of Belarus (bit.ly/2HQA3ms) and together with Ilya Saitanov curated a thematic playlist of rare sound recordings (bit.ly/33wlZpT). In the new episode of Radio Eshkolot podcast ZIsl Slepovitch gives you the answer to the essential question – How one can discern by the sound of Jewish music that it originates from Belarus? Download the episode: http://files.eshkolot.ru/mixtape31.mp3 Detailed...

This playlist curated by the New York-based musician and musicologist Zisl Slepovitch and Ilya Saitanov (Lakocha) is a prelude to the next episode, which will be devoted to the Jewish music of Belarus. Rare recordings of secular and religious music were mostly made in the field by ethnomusicologists Zinoviy (Susman) Kiselgof, Sofia Magid, Yakov Mazor, Inna Nazina, Dmitry Zisl Slepovitch and Nina Stepanskaya. Download the episode Detailed description 00:06 Kvoyde Moyle Eylom (Shimen...

Meet KGB archives, exclusive interviews and rare recordings in the second and final part of Mitia Khramtsov's and Ilya Saitanov's story of the Soviet Jewish restaurant musicians ("labukhs). You are advised to start listening from the first part, accompanied by the annotated playlist. Download the episode Detailed description Архивы КГБ, эксклюзивные интервью и редкие записи – во второй части подкаста Radio Eshkolot, посвященного советским ресторанным музыкантам-лабухам. Составители и...

As a sequel to their podcast on Jewish music in the Soviet restaurant musicians Mitia Kharmtsov (Dobranoch) and Ilya Saitanov (Lakocha) offer a curated and annotated playlist of top-10 archival recordings of Jewish "labukh" musicians. Download the episode Detailed description В продолжение своего подкаста о еврейской музыке в советском ресторане музыканты Митя Храмцов ("Добраночь") и Илья Сайтанов ("Лакоча") представляют комментированный плейлист из 10 лучших редких записей еврейских...

Recently opened KGB archives in Ukraine give us a rare glimpse into the Jewish music of the Soviet restaurants – a scene relentlessly thriving in 1970s and 1980s despite persecution. In the new episode of Radio Eshkolot podcast musicians Mitia Khramtsov (Dobranoch) and Ilya Saitanov (Lakocha) take us on a journey based on interviews with old labukhs (restaurant musicians) and rare recordings. Download the episode Detailed description Недавно открытые архивы КГБ в Украине проливают...

Why do Mountain Jews of the Caucasus pronounce Hebrew a lot like Yemenites? How does music demonstrate that Mountain Jews came to the Caucasus from Iran? Why do Mountain Jews and Muslims speak the same juhuri language but don't share even one folk song? How does music from Dagestan influence the soundscape of modern Israel? In the new episode of Radio Eshkolot podcast Israeli ethnomusicologist, composer and musician Piris Eliyahu talks about musical traditions of his own community and...

Why did the keeper of Berditchev synagogue polish the magnificent chandelier on Sabbath eve and hang himself on it? In the new episode of Radio Eshkolot podcast the actress Julia Aug tells a Hasidic story about withering fire, freezing water, generous princes, wise centenarians, and dangerous ideas. Commentary: Uri Gershovich. Soundtrack: Alex Nadzharov, Grigory Sandomirsky, Maria Logofet. Download the episode Detailed description Почему сторож синагоги Бердичева накануне субботы начистил...

How does Kazachok transform Hungarian string instruments into percussion? Where does it arrive in the course of its Odyssey around Greek islands? What did American klezmer musicians do to it? In the new episode of Radio Eshkolot podcast, Ilya Saitanov continues his adventurous ethnomusicological journey (for the beginning, see the first part). Download the episode Detailed description Как казачок превращает венгерские струнные инструменты в ударные? Чем заканчивается его одиссея по...

Is Kazachok a melody or a dance? Is Ukranian gopak the same as Ukranian kozachok? And what about Jewish hopke and kozatske? When do Lubavitch hasidim dance Kazachok? All these questions are subjects of endless debate. In the new episode of Radio Eshkolot podcast, musician and folklorist Ilya Saitanov in dialogue with his colleague from Ukraine Ilya Fetisov leads us into the thicket of ethnomusicology with a lot of rare musical tracks. Download the episode Detailed description "Казачок" –...

How did the blind Rabbi from Aleppo turn a popular Egyptian song into a Messianic hymn? How did the melody of a blind Iraqi Sufi get to be played by an Israeli musician as an opening for Radiohead? Why do synagogues in Jerusalem recite Kaddish to the melody of an Umm Kulthum song? The new episode of Radio Eshkolot podcast is about a quaint relationship of Judaism with Arab music. Detailed description Download the episode 00:10 Lamma bada || Lamma haketz (Haim Louk & David Menachem) 06:18...

"Sleep, sleep, my girl, sleep, sleep, my dear. Daddy will bring you a birdie, so that your eye won't hurt". Why is father always away? How does the bird cure the eye? Why is the singer lisping? What do Yakut songs have in common with a Jewish lullaby? The "slow listening" of a simple Yiddish lullaby with a musician Ilya Saitanov and a philologist Alexandra Polyan leads you into the magic thicket of ethnography, linguistics and musicology. Download the episode Detailed...

One night in November 2019 groups of flâneurs went walking in Berlin. Their impressions were captured in flows of images, audio notes, videos, stories, and a musical piece. Drifters created situations where the once-familiar city became defamiliarized – "Berlin is never Berlin". Composer Alex Nadzharov montaged the Drift sounds into the psychogeographic musical piece "Berlin Drift". This is a sound-route through the city. In the new episode of Radio Eshkolot podcast the soundscape of "Berlin...

"You should drink a little vodka, but like a Mensch, not like a Golem" – this line from a Yiddish song incorporates the whole philosophy of Jewish drinking. In the new episode of Radio Eshkolot podcast musician and folklorist Ilya Saitanov and linguist Alexandra Polyan present the adventurous story of the lyrics and music of the song Az me nemt a bisele bronfn, with ethnographic materials and live performance by Lakocha. Download the episode Detailed description "Немного водки нужно...

"Slow reading is the opposite of close reading and yes I do think that Jewish reading practices can teach us a lot about this kind of reading and that reading is always a call, it's always a call to respond. Only after silent reading is invented does reading become a kind of practice literally and figuratively of masturbation". In the latest episode of Radio Eshkolot podcast enfant terrible of Jewish Studies Daniel Boyarin (UC Berkeley) talks about Slow Reading over a soundscape by...

Did you know that "Oyfn pripetchek brent a fayerel" (“On the hearth, a fire burns”) is actually a metaphor for female desire? The story told by Israeli musicologist Michael Lukin begins with rabbinic condemnation of Jewish women singing "whore songs" in early modern Europe and continues with one of such songs becoming a source for the most famous Yiddish didactic "folk" song of our times. In the new episode of Radio Eshkolot podcast Michael Lukin’s story is accompanied by several dissimilar...

Why Jewish "folk songs" were "invented" in the 19th century? Does it mean the Jews did not sing outside the synagogue before? And if they did, then when and where? How do raisins and almonds appear in the most popular Ashkenazi lullaby? How can a roof tile turn into a goat? Israeli musicologist Michael Lukin talks about the famous "Rozhinkes mit mandlen" – and through it about the history, poetics and music of Jewish folk songs – in the new episode of Radio Eshkolot podcast. Musical...

Ancient Hebrew devotional songs – tehillim (ψαλμοί, Psalms)– have reached us only as written texts. However, for thousands of years they have endlessly inspired composers to recreate the vanished music. This episode of Radio Eshkolot podcast presents daring attempts at writing a "soundtrack" to Psalms – from French Renaissance to New York avant-garde of the 21st century. Download the entire episode Detailed description Henry Purcell. Out of the Deep (Ps. 130) 00:00-06:22 Arvo Pärt....

Ten most viewed musical videos on Eshkolot Youtube channel have one apparent common feature – they provoke violent battles over cultural appropriation in the commentaries. "Jewish Csárdás" – How dare you? This is our Hungarian music! "Jewish Maqam" – Jewish?? Are you kidding me? This is pure Azeri mugam! "Polka żydówka" – What a chutzpah! It seems that the intrinsically contact/border/hybrid nature of Jewish music provides it with extremely successful marketing strategy :) Download the...

"Niggun, a Hasidic song without words, is like a very powerful virus. Because the moment you hear it – you have to catch it. If you have to sit there thinking about it, it doesn't work. The niggunim work by having a structure, which you can learn very quickly, if you just try to sing it" – explains American musician and philosopher Alan Bern on Radio Eshkolot. This episode of the podcast offers a selection of the most viral niggunim from Eshkolot workshops. Download the entire...

A hundred years ago Weimar Berlin became a global migration hub, a multilingual marketplace, exploding with artistic, technological and social innovation amidst economic crises and decadent nightlife. The latter was dominated by cabaret and dance-hall music created by Jewish composers Mischa Spoliansky and Friedrich Hollaender. In the new podcast Radio Eshkolot presents an original interpretation of 1920s standards by an improvisational band Goat's Notes. Download the entire...