Songs can grow on you. From the first sound until the last note, they are able to somehow find a warm place in your heart.

Uri Sade‘s song-in-progress, “I Don’t Know Why” is that kind of a song. It goes right to the heart and fills you with a sweet warmth. The song is part of Uri’s solo project that he is working on now and later this year– he’s planning to move to London to study music. In addition, he has a band project called“KUNO” , a more rock oriented band that will be releasing their debut album and launching it this Friday (21.06) at Ozen Bar.

Listen to “I Don’t Know Why” below:

The sheer beauty of the morning: Waking up not in a rush, warming up the water for the first coffee and staring out of the window with a new hope for new promises. Window seat wanderer learning to let go or letting everything in.

Maya Johanna‘s debut single “Shallow Waters” (accompanied with a beautiful video – watch it below) is one of those incredible songs that goes right into the heart with the full intention of staying there. Her voice, warm and profound, invites you to a great journey and reminds me of the NY based singer-songwriter Hannah Cohen, one of my favorites . The song, produced by the amazing Sun Tailor, is a guitar driven beauty with the perfect lyrics. Can’t wait for the full album…

CATCH Maya performing at Levontin 7 this Saturday (15.06)

Every Sunday holds a promise for new beginnings. A fresh start to the rest of our lives or at least for the rest of the weekend… So it’s important to start it with a good song.

Roy Dahan is back with a new song from his forthcoming second album “The Man in My Head”. His debut album “Some of This Life” came out two years ago and introduced to us a new singer-songwriter full of emotions and heart-warming songs, complete with an album that can easily be described as perfection. His new song “Crush” takes off from where the first album stopped, musically and lyrically. Before, it was about someone that’s trying to wake himself up and move himself into the outside world. Now it is about a person questioning the world and himself and looking for the right answers and the right place to be. The beautiful and guitar-driven song takes us on Roy’s journey of his search for life’s answers, with the hope of finding some answers for ourselves too.

Listen to “Crush” below and CATCH him performing at the “Barby” (June 24).

I woke up today and rushed to find new music that would comfort me: I needed a song that would help soothe the post-trauma of a bad dream, a song that would carry me into the beautiful wild and give my ears a chance to explore new, unfamiliar and yet still recognizable worlds.

I found my answer in LolaMarsh‘s beautiful music. LolaMarsh are Yael Shoshana Cohen, Gil Landau and the band Mati Gilad, Rami Osservaser and Dekel Dvir. Their music is a strange fruit in the local musical landscape; if I try to describe them, I would say that it sounds like the young Dolly Parton decided to go on to a musical trip with Laura Marling and Noah & The Whale and then arrived here to put a big show in the middle of the Middle East.

Yael’s voice is like a riddle – a magical voice from the deep forest combined with the music and words she writes with Gil – the man that is responsible for the great musical production of it all. Now, after 2 years of performing, writing songs and finding the right band members (and also taking a little time off for Yael to take part in the Israeli version of “The Voice”) they are working on their debut album out in 2013/14. Can’t wait…

Watch below LolaMarsh performing “Stranger To My Past” at BalconyTV.

I love the streets of Tel Aviv, they are full of beautiful accidents waiting to happen. You can walk through the streets and then, in middle of nowhere, you can hear strains of wonderful music just waiting to be discovered. The street music scene is not so common here (because of some local laws) but in the last year, more and more musicians are going out to the streets and singing at the top of their voices. That’s how I discovered Ori Rakib, in the middle of Rothschild Blvd. He stood there, with his mic and his guitar, singing covers to Bon Iver and Radiohead, as well as original songs that he wrote, both beautiful and heartbreaking. I fell in love immediately.

Ori sings on the streets by choice. It’s not an issue of money, it’s purely for the thrill. People walk by andare able to discover his music and find themselves greeted with a few minutes of beautiful melodies that they can enjoy in the midst of their hectic daily life.

“Music is a gift. A gift that I finally earned and give every time I play on street corners, on balconies, in bars and cafes and in your mind!” says Ori. Last year, he moved to Berlin with his band “Thin Drapes” to tour on the streets of the city with great success. Now that he has  b moved back and decided to go solo, he can be found singing on the streets of Tel Aviv while working on his debut album, due to be out later this year.

“You Have Everything” is the song that made me to stop in my tracks in the middle of the street and since then, it has been stuck in my head, so I felt I need to share it with everyone. Here it is below:

Sometimes it’s a really dangerous thing to cover a well known and already a beautiful song. But sometimes, on rarely ocasions, the cover may lift the original version and take it to a journey to other dimensions and places and attach new feelings and memories to it.

Rotem Shefy‘s version of Radiohead’s “Karma Police” is an example for a great cover that combines the greatness of the lyrics with Middle Eastern flavours and Arabic tunes. What started as a simple cover became a beautiful take on the Israeli and Arabic cultural heritage and its conflicts. This cover is the first one from a bigger project Rotem is working on with the band an at the same time she continues working on her solo career as a singer-songwriter.

Watch the beautiful video for “Karma Police” directed by Amos Geva and listen to a song from Rotem’s solo project below. CATCH her performing at OZEN BAR this Sutarday (01.06.13)

Here’s the perfect way to wake up this morning (and actually every morning…)

Josef Mon (from the band Umlala) is dropping a first taste from his exciting solo project – the beautifully crafted “Divided Mellow” accompanied with a great video (one of many to come in the future) described best as surf Hip Hop under flat bell.

You can download the song HERE and watch the video below.

Being a late bloomer is not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes we need the right amount of time to grow and wait for the right time and place to flourish.

Maya Avgar is the perfect example of a late bloomer. She always sang but never considered herself a musician. But once she picked up the guitar, she started making music and and never looked back. Now she’s releasing her first single “Fine Line” from her debut album released later this year. A small and beautiful song that builds towards a powerful and sweeping finish line, preparing the listener for a great album produced by Jonathan Levy from “Izabo”.

Listen to “Fine Line” below.

It looks as the Summer is on the way to Tel Aviv so I’ve been looking for some intellectual pop to share with in these hot days. Intellectual pop is a rare thing here so I’m holding on every bit of good and exciting pop music.

Danielle Ravitzki‘s first single “Too Much” is one of those perfectly designed intellectual pop songs – the music is uplifting (thanks to the great Assaf Amdursky), her voice is heart-breaking, the lyrics (by the poet Yona Wolach) are amazing and the production of it all sounds exactly like it’s taken from abroad but at the same time it’s totally from here.

Everything sums up into great and timeless songs and that’s because of the great minds of Bruno Grife (“Terry Poison”) and Karni Postel (Cellist, Singer and part of the 90′s group “Bikini”) who are producing the album but also because of Danielle Ravitzki and her great taste in music and her choice of influences. Her choice of great songs by great poets and the choice of the amazing musicians that take part in the forthcoming debut album represents the new era in the pop scene of Tel Aviv – The fearless and bold intellectual pop era.

I’m sitting in a small and cosy apartment in Berlin. I needed some air for myself, some necessary time to forget the daily struggles and to be free or, at least, to feel like I’m. Then this song started to play and it suited me perfectly.

“Pirsomot” is the next single from Nadav Barnea‘s debut album “About Life and Death”. A beautiful song produced by Ben Spector and talks about the person versus the public and about wars, winners and how small and scared we are in the middle of all this. It reflects so many Israeli conflicts but at the same time it may feel right almost about everything else that goes on in this world. Nadav is a fresh voice in the rock scene of Tel Aviv. He’s not afraid to talk about what troubles him and combines it with great rock music influenced by the Israeli Rrck scene in the 90′s, mixed with a new and exciting angle and a heart breaking take on it.

Listen to the song below and catch him performing with piano versions of his album at Levontin 7, 01.06.13