Release : Shimshon Miel - Orchard Of The Whispering Embers
Artist : Shimshon Miel
Album : Orchard Of The Whispering Embers
Genre : Progressive Rock
Source : CDDA
Label : ars records
URL :
Date : 00-00-2007
Encoder : LAME 3.97 / -V2 --vbr-new
Quality : 200kbps 44100 kHz Joint Stereo
Tracks : 11
Time : 61:09 min
Size : 90.03 MB
1 Orchard Of The Whispering Embers 4:50
2 The Holy Zohar 2:39
3 A Jewish Soul 9:09
4 Nueiba Nueiba 6:00
5 Derech Eretz 4:15
6 Halelluya 3:20
7 Amsterdam Experience 4:54
8 The Creator's Joy 2:51
9 Forteen Minutes 14:30
10 Piece Of Art 4:14
11 Don't Change The World 4:27
1977 û Tracks 1-7: Original album, private pressing
2007 û CD reissue with 4 additional tracks recorded 1979-2002
"Religious Psych" may be something of a contradiction in terms.
"Religiously-tinged Avant-Garde" may suit it better, yet, back in 2006, shortly
after an announcement from a collector in British paper The Guardian, regarding
"an esoteric Israeli acid-folk LP", a little stir was caused among collectors in
the Holy Land. This time, the hype was rightfully there, as reflected from
listening to this CD reissue.
In the booklet, the artist himself explains how the music came about, following
his strolling in the Carmel forest in the late 1970s, attempting to emulate the
prophets of Biblical timesà and indeed, the ability of Miel to fully integrate
with his own soul via experimentalism is the key to both the creation and
delivery of such collection of purely inspired, mostly instrumental tracks that
are not connected in any way to traditional Jewish music. Musically, however,
not only is every track a whispering ember in its own right, it is also apparent
that like with a bonfire, all the roaming whispers are joined collectively in
body and spirità and heard into the sky and from the sky, like a
collectively-minded prayers.
A declared fan of John McLaughlin, Miel plays all instruments on the album.
Always being in the position of a self-portrayed individualist, it may stand as
a self-explanatory of the "Non-Commerciality" nature of the compositions, as
well as of the unusual arrangements, yet delicately-textured bursts of fuzz
guitar and friendly congas. All these are augmented by high-spirit guitar solosà
From the acid-tinged jazz inspirations and chants on Orchard of the Whispering
Embers via the somewhat mysterious-come-obvious, Gentle Giant imbued atmosphere
of The Holy Zohar, through the Ramases-styled rejoicing come jam-packed A Jewish
Soul, followed by the hand-drummed; sea-waved pastorally-tickled Nueiba Nueiba
(the latter, not too incidentally, is named after a coast in the Sinai
peninsula). Another vocal track, Derech Eretz, may demonstrate the artist's
experience as a hermit that reaches a pinnacle in Halleluya. An unexplained come
well-crafted drumming-filled Amsterdam Experience is followed by another guitar
burst on The Creator's Joy that was apparently excerpted from the highly
progressive Fourteen Minutes. A Piece of Art is another self-explanatory,
carefully fabricated number, whilst the English-sung would-be lament Don't
Change the World is pleading us to go back to the nature and leave the
industrial world behindà
The independently minded, God-loving ambience reflected in the record's name and
the music carried within may not be in a position to turn the charts alight, and
have never been aimed at that purpose. On the other hand, at the same time, all
the above suggest that a careful and painstaking listening to the album may
equate a walk through an orchard where every orange is a step towards one's true
spirit and mind, where the power of thoughts leads to the oranges' self-peeling
and willingness to jump into your mouth, only to prove themselves a food for
thought-come-sweet platform for creationà that can set the world alight when the
time has come.
Whilst Shimshon Miel may have founded the album as his own method of worshipping
the Lord, this is a true find for the seculars as well. Thanks to The Guardian,
following by a vision (pun intended!) courtesy of ARS records together with the
full co-operation of the artist, this little gem was rescued from oblivion and
is finally in print again. However, unlike with the old clichΘ, there is
absolutely no need to crank up the volume if you want to hear the embers'
whispers.