Now the Castlefest scene, as I fondly call the Pagan/fantasy folk scene we are all part of, has always been a really supportive one with bands visiting each other’s concerts and all kinds of collaborations happening on stage and behind the scenes. Had found a place in the front rows, as had formerĪnd from the corner of my eye I could also see sound magicianĪfterwards I discovered SeeD’s frontman Koen van Egmond and Sowulo’s harp player Chloé Bakker also attended the concert a day earlier. As I started looking around, I was also able to spot Rowan from But I really started raising an eyebrow when some minutes later The next to pass me was SaraĪnd her partner. Has given to the big tent where the games are played and the indoor performances take place- I couldn’t help but noticeįaber Auroch entering. As I was getting ready to photograph the next band in ‘The Great Hall’-the name Ofra would probably say keep hoping.Sunday the 25th of November, 14:45 PM, I am on Tragically, Ofra is gone, and we're all still waiting to hear popular songs of peace from the Palestinian side.
Ofra seems to put one such song on every album.
it's in a major key), and it is a rousing song of hope for peace - even a love offering to the Palestinians. "Middle East" has ironically the least middle-eastern melody of the dance tunes (i.e. "Kaddish" left hardly a dry eye in the house when she performed this in concert. "Slave Dream" and "In Ta" take some getting used to, but even they turn into winners once you've managed to absorb them. That's a lot of favorites for one album, but that's the kind of album this is. Best are the danceable "Ya Ba Ye", "Middle East", "I Want to Fly" and "Taw Shi", and the gorgeous "Fatamorgana", "Da'asa" and "Kaddish". Then, a year later, she turns out "Desert Wind", this stunning, hook-laden, beat-driven, authentically Middle-Eastern album of passionate, meaningful songs, juxtaposing Hebrew and English verses, almost all written or co-written by her. We saw her in concert later that year and of course learned much more about her and her earlier music, particularly her groundbreaking "Fifty Gates of Wisdom (Yemenite Songs)".įollowing "Fifty Gates" in 1987, Ofra Haza turned to a dance beat in "Shadday" (1988), an album, in my opinion, of derivative western dance-track sounds and only two stand-out songs. As we soon learned, she was a Yemenite Israeli, already world-famous (except in America) back then in 1990. I think she's Arab." Then I saw Ofra Haza's picture on the cover and had to say "WOW" again. I said "WOW, who is this?" And she said "I don't know who she is, they were playing her at the music store and I asked who it was and bought it. My wife came home from shopping and put it on. I'll never forget the day I first heard this on cassette.
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