“Waves of sadness mixed with beauty”: the ‘Palace in Time’ orchestra will put on a performance inspired by the phoenix

“We had a desire to do something with the phoenix that burned and rose again, which corresponded with the situation today. We wanted to bring everyday hope.” So says Matan Daskal, the artistic director and conductor of the ‘Palace in Time’ orchestra, which will perform next week at the Jerusalem Jazz Festival. “We all lost people on October 7, I am a relative of Gali Hotar from Bari who was kidnapped from the kibbutz and released after 54 days. This period brings up many things for me. I feel many shades of sadness and the show expresses it – waves of sadness mixed with beauty.”

The Phoenix is ​​a beautiful fire bird that appears in many mythologies. The phoenix builds itself a nest made of resin and twigs which eventually leads to the bird’s burning. From the ashes, the bird resurrects and repeats the move in a circular fashion. Inspired by him, the Yzira orchestra will perform as part of the festival, on June 19–20 In the Non-Western Cultures Gallery & “Rhythm of Life” at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

The musicians take the piece apart and put it back together

For this purpose, a three-part show will be built that will take place in two spaces in the Jerusalem Museum. In the first part, the audience enters the space while music emanates from speakers on the four walls. In the second part, the double bass player Or Sinai will perform her piece ‘Below Zero’, in which she conducts an almost impossible dialogue with her instrument and stretches it beyond its physical and musical limits until it collapses and disintegrates and thus loses itself and its essence.

In the second part, the audience will meet 8 musicians from the orchestra who will perform “In C”, the work of the American composer Terry Riley that was written 60 years ago. “In this special piece,” explains Daskel, “all the musicians get all the notes, 53 musical passages, when the instruction of the performance is to enter the boxes slowly, each player enters at a different time, which creates a kind of canon.”

“The musicians have a lot of freedom to play within the boundaries of the piece, but this requires the musicians to listen to each other and creates a kind of communal piece. No one should move too far forward and no one should stay behind, like a herd of animals. Differences are made, but not too big.”

Riley’s work challenges musical stereotypes. The musicians take it apart and reassemble it so that each time the piece is recreated in a different way. “It expresses the rebirth, the being and the cycle of the phoenix,” explains Daskel. “It’s beautiful how the breakup ends not with a hard feeling, but with a feeling of pleasure.”

“The show seeks to move between the cultures of the world, between ancient worlds, spiritual, ceremonial, tribal, religious spaces that express joy, sadness, fear, beginning, end and what follows. It is not a dance show, but it is definitely a performance event.”

“We are expanding the range of the term orchestra”

Daskel (33), who serves as the orchestra’s artistic director, conductor and composer, came from the field of dance. He lives in Holon, has a BA in composition and music education and was a dancer in the Bat Sheva and Yasmin Goder bands. He founded the group about a decade ago and it has about 32 musicians who combine acoustic and electronic elements.

“The ensemble has many independent musicians who come from a classical or jazz background, who have the ability to improvise. They play acoustic instruments and electronic instruments. There are wind instruments, harp, percussion and also a computer player who manipulates the instruments.”

Giving a deskel at the concert. “We are expanding the range of the term orchestra, presenting live concerts and sound installations” (Photo: Malu Zayon)

Daskel is very aware of the uniqueness of the orchestra, which this month released a new album called THE TRUTH Created by Daskel and his faithful. “It’s doing something not so defined and clear, which goes into the realms of new music. There is a rhythmic and groove feeling. There are avant-garde areas, but that’s not what defines us. We also make songs and pieces that have a rhythm.”

“The orchestra is actually a large and modular instrument. We are expanding the range of the concept of an orchestra, presenting live concerts and sound installations.” Leading artists participated in the last album such as singer Daniel Sun Kriaf, Ehad Fishoff Shasher and Nigan, trumpet player Tal Avraham, percussionist Trilok Gorto, harp players Ada Regimov and Tal Vaknin and many more.