Irit Dekel

IRIT, AN ISRAELI SINGER-SONGWRITER HAS LIVED A SOMEWHAT IDIOSYNCRATIC LIFE. HER JOURNEY LED HER TO BECOME A SOLDIER AND A SNIPER, A STAGE ACTRESS IN ISRAEL’S MOST PRESTIGIOUS THEATRE GROUP, A TV TALK SHOW HOST, A DOCUMENTARY MAKER AND COMEDIENNE, AMONGST A HOST OF OTHER THINGS. EVER PRESENT THROUGHOUT THIS WINDING ROAD, WAS A PASSION FOR MAKING MUSIC AND SINGING. IRIT FOUND HER VOICE WHILST PLAYING WITH LAST OF SONGS, THE ELECTRONIC COVERS BAND FROM TEL AVIV. AS SHE STARTED WRITING HER OWN SONGS, SHE FOUND HERSELF GRAVITATING TOWARD A MORE ORGANIC SOUND, DRAWING INSPIRATION FROM THE ELABORATE MIDDLE EASTERN SCALES AND RHYTHMS SHE HAD HEARD GROWING UP. IT WAS THEN THAT THE LIFE EXPERIENCES THAT SHAPED HER AS A PERSON SPILT UNRESTRAINED ONTO THE PAGE. FROM RELIGION, EXPERIENCING AWFUL SEXISM IN THE THEATRE INDUSTRY AND RELATIONSHIPS THAT HAD NOT GONE ACCORDING TO PLAN, IRIT FELT LIKE SHE WAS WRITING EPISODES IN HER OWN PERSONAL SOAP OPERA. MUSICALLY, IRIT’S INSPIRATIONS RANGE FROM BJORK TO KATE BUSH, BUT THE PLAYFUL SOUND SHE DEVELOPED WITH PRODUCER JONATHAN QUARMBY COULD UNIQUELY BE DESCRIBED AS SOMETHING LIKE THE LATIN JAZZ OF ASTRID GILBERTO POSSESSED BY THE SOUL OF PJ HARVEY.