Customer Reviews

Songs to the Invisible God

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a disaffected non-practicing Jew with Zen Buddhist leanings, I was stunned upon listening to this glorious music. Having endured for most of 48 years the stifling patriarchal dogma that comprises much of modern day Judaism, I was literally brought to tears by the radiant beauty and soaring spirituality of this music. Ms. Magan's deep voice and inspired interpretations are perfectly matched. All unaccompanied and recorded in settings chosen for their acoustical effect, comparisons to the Anonymous 4 are definitely in order. This is Jewish spiritual music at its very best.

After hearing the Israeli folk musician Chava Alberstein sing a Psalm in a style unlike any I'd heard before, I went searching for similar Judaic religious music. This cd, while unlike Ms. Alberstein, is the stunning result of that search. This is music that clearly belongs to the mystic tradition rather than the ritual tradition. The music is haunting, searching, lonely in a way unlike any other religious music I've heard - it is an expression of the longing for mystic union rather than the more common mystic music to induce a trance. While the style and tone are Middle Eastern, the music is so "right" for what it expresses that one can hardly conceive of it in a more Western style.

After hearing the Israeli folk musician Chava Alberstein sing a Psalm in a style unlike any I'd heard before, I went searching for similar Judaic religious music. This cd, while unlike Ms. Alberstein, is the stunning result of that search. This is music that clearly belongs to the mystic tradition rather than the ritual tradition. The music is haunting, searching, lonely in a way unlike any other religious music I've heard - it is an expression of the longing for mystic union rather than the more common mystic music to induce a trance. While the style and tone are Middle Eastern, the music is so "right" for what it expresses that one can hardly conceive of it in a more Western style.

After hearing the Israeli folk musician Chava Alberstein sing a Psalm in a style unlike any I'd heard before, I went searching for similar Judaic religious music. This cd, while unlike Ms. Alberstein, is the stunning result of that search. This is music that clearly belongs to the mystic tradition rather than the ritual tradition. The music is haunting, searching, lonely in a way unlike any other religious music I've heard - it is an expression of the longing for mystic union rather than the more common mystic music to induce a trance. While the style and tone are Middle Eastern, the music is so "right" for what it expresses that one can hardly conceive of it in a more Western style.