The Tide Has Changed Is Out (UK only)
…this blistering, beautiful set…a fluid, hypnotic, optimistic blending of sounds from North Africa, the Arabian peninsula, John Surman and Charlie Parker, resulting in a multicultural balm of Gilad to soothe all aching souls.
Andew Male, Mojo, October 2010.
The vivacity, urgency and spontaneity of the best contemporary jazz spurs him always John Fordham, The Guardian.
Spirituality and time-bending alto-sax virtuosity Mike Hobart Financial Times (4 stars)
Astonishing invention and virtuosity Robert Shore, Metro
Riotous mix of oompah music-hall cavortings, slurred-pitch Middle Eastern rhapsodising, luxuriously sensuous clarinet love-songs, and stormy collective blasts reminiscent of the 1960s John Coltrane quartet John Fordham, The Guardian (4 stars)
Intense and involved but at the same time highly entertaining Alan Joyce This Is Nottingham
Incredible and unprecedented Rainlores World of Music
Ten years ago I realised that beauty is the way forward. I saw that art is the true means of transformation. Spirit and energy are bricks and mortar. Shapes and colours are hammers and chisels. Rationality is a misleading concept, the melody is the truth, humanism is a metaphor, consciousness is the devil and amnesia is freedom. The tide has changed and so have we, more than ever, and in spite of all the odds, we laugh.
In the last decade I have managed to surround myself with some of the most incredible musicians around, people who push each other towards the edge of artistic creativity and beyond. I guess that the Orient House Ensemble’s motto is pretty obvious: relentlessly, we remind ourselves why we decided to make music in the first place.
I thank the Gods for allowing us to proceed so far.
Gilad Atzmon