OCTOBER 2007

• Gilad Atzmon and the OHE Presenting Refuge (pt1)
• Gilad Atzmon and the OHE Presenting Refuge (pt2)
• Gilad Atzmon and the OHE Presenting Refuge (pt3)

BEING IN TIME

When I founded the Orient House Ensemble in 2000, I had just a few tunes in mind, but I also had a great belief. I was sure that music was capable of bringing people together. I was totally convinced that music could heal the wounds of the past. I was sure that music was a message of peace. I was confident that if rivals could make it into a song, they can easily learn to live together. Eight years later, I must admit that I may have got it wrong. This is our fifth album. We have performed hundreds of concerts around the world and somehow peace is nowhere near. Every other day a new conflict comes to life. Once a week, a newly born fear is shaped into a sinister agenda wrapped in an image of Western goodness. As far as my homeland is concerned, peace has never looked so far away. The world is indeed becoming more and more hostile. Yet, we, the Orient House Ensemble, have done something, a thing that has very little cosmic significance. We have learned to sing together. We didn't plan to learn, we didn't educate ourselves. It just grew on us. Over the years our personal fears faded away. Our insecurities melted down. Without realising it, our music made it into a language with some very personal shapes and colours. Music has become our refuge. I was wrong regarding music as messenger. I was wrong referring to music as an idea or ideology. Music is not a messenger, it is actually the message. Music doesn't belong to man. It is the other way around, man belongs to music. Music speaks itself through man. Music comes into play when thoughts pass away, consciousness disintegrates and ideologies implode. Music is the true Being in Time. Just give it time and let it be.

Gilad Atzmon

GILAD ATZMON AND THE ORIENT HOUSE ENSEMBLE

THE REFUGE TOUR - AUTUMN 2007
for demo: http://www.gilad.co.uk/