Desert sounds for two

The Tzlilim Bamidbar Festival at Kibbutz Sde Boker will set the stage for a unique musical confluence – between a female icon and a male ‘Kochav Nolad’ half her age.

DECEMBER 3, 2015 15:50

‘The odd couple’: Rivka Zohar and Liron Lev (photo credit: GUY HECHT) — ‘The odd couple’: Rivka Zohar and Liron Lev

(photo credit: GUY HECHT)

At first glance, Rivka Zohar and Liron Lev make for an odd professional couple.

Now 67 years old, Zohar is one of the enduring icons of the Israeli music scene, with over four decades of mellifluous offerings behind her, and hits such as “Baderech El Hakfar” and “Ma Avarech,” which feature highly in most Israelis’ favorite numbers-of-yesteryear list.

Lev, on the other hand, is less than half her age and came to notice for his stellar performance in the Kochav Nolad TV talent show 12 years ago.

But they do go together, and their musical confluence is as seamless as one could hope to hear, generation gap notwithstanding.

The audience at the annual Tzlilim Bamidbar (Desert Sounds) Festival, the 18th edition of which will take place at Kibbutz Sde Boker December 10-13 under the steady guiding hand of perennial artistic director Michael Wolpe, will no doubt sense the personal and musical harmony between Zohar and Lev.

In fact, had it not been for Lev’s initiative, or bravery, the two would never have made it to the stage, or recording studio, together.

“Liron and I met for the first time at the Cameri Theater, where there was a tribute show for [octogenarian composer] Aryeh Levanon,” recalls Zohar, adding that she almost didn’t make it to the show herself. “I dithered over whether to take part but, in the end, I did. I didn’t know who Liron Lev was and I met him in the corridor behind the stage, and he came up to me and said I sang well – he’d heard me singing at the sound check.”

It was a fateful meeting which was to spawn a lasting working relationship, and friendship.

“Liron was a bit shy, but he told me he’d written a song that he thought would suit me,” Zohar continues. “He let me listen to the song on his cellphone.” Sheepishness notwithstanding, Lev immediately knew he was in with a shout. “I saw Rivka dancing a bit to the song, so I knew she liked it,” he says.

“It was a lovely song,” continues Zohar. “He wrote the words and the music. Liron is a genius. The song is called ‘Tikun Klali,’ and that started everything.”

The two duly recorded the song, which gained generous radio airtime and found its way onto a CD of the same name, one of two albums the pair have released to date. The other is called Lo K’mo Etmol (Not Like Yesterday) – the duo’s debut release – with lyrics by Zohar, with Lev penning the score.

“I had never written lyrics before I met Liron,” says Zohar. “I have a file with about 40 songs with words by Rivka,” Lev notes. “I think once the first song was done, it was like a dam bursting. It came out in torrents.”

Almost three years after that chance encounter at the Cameri Theater, Zohar and Lev are going stronger than ever and perform all over the country. A new single is due out soon and, despite all the mileage and stage time the two have accrued, Zohar says she never ceases to be amazed by the musical harmony and personal chemistry between her and 32-year-old Lev.

“He talked to me in the corridor back then, because it just had to happen.

But it is surprising that we work so well together. You could understand it if we did one or two songs together, but we’ve already done two albums. Besides being good friends – and the music is also based on that – we are two gifted people making music together, so effortlessly.”

As far as Zohar is concerned, she and Lev speak the same language and there is no element of the wiser elder stateswoman nurturing her younger and less worldly-wise sidekick.

“Of course, we have different life experiences and different personal baggage, but somehow he takes all of that on. He is so wise, and he absorbs all the experience I have. If he didn’t, we would be just two separate entities. He can tell me how to sing something, and that’s fine. He is so talented.”

Lev’s talent won out, says Zohar. “I never related to his age. I listened to the song and I immediately realized Liron has a gift.”

Zohar says that Lev was also sensitive to certain discrepancies between them, and cut his cloth accordingly.

Favorable impression with “Tikun Klali” notwithstanding, Zohar was not immediately taken with the idea of performing a duet with Lev.

“I thought the vocal range didn’t suit me. The low register was too low, and the upper register was too high.

I told him that the song was good for him, and that I’d be happy if he sent me other material. But he found a solution to suit ‘Tikun Klali’ to my voice so we could sing it together.”

Lev says he delights in Zohar’s ability to go with the flow. “You know, you get older people who are set in their ways, but Rivka is very open to music and, you know, at the end of the day we have similar musical tastes.”

That also helped Zohar fit right in with Lev’s musical mates.

“She didn’t just fit in with me, but she also works well with my band,” Lev notes. “That’s not something you can take for granted. The band has been together for six years, but she just fit right in. Rivka and I are on the same wavelength. We don’t exactly play heavy metal together,” he laughs, “but we work well together.

Our voices are compatible, too.”

The Sde Boker show is called Or Misaviv (Surrounding Light). It is the name of a number that the pair will perform at Sde Boker, which neatly also fits the theme of Hanukka.

The repertoire for the concert also features tried and trusted nuggets from Zohar’s past, which will be proffered in a new guise.

“I have rearranged some of her old hits,” says Lev, noting that the contemporary renditions appear to go down well with the older crowd, who remember the original versions well, too.

“It is lovely to see people of all ages at our shows, and that they like what we have done with songs from many years ago. The new single is a new and surprising reworking of ‘Zemer Shalosh Hatshuvot’ [which Zohar first recorded in 1969]. I hope people like it.”

Judging by the odd couple’s success to date, that should be a given.

“When you get one gifted person with another gifted person, you get a gift,” laughs Zohar. “Liron and I were made to play music together.”

For more information about the Tzlilim Bamidbar Festival: (08) 646-4115 and www.tzlilimbamidbar.co.il