Music about Israel is tricky thing. And I don’t mean music from Israel. Israeli musicians can grab a guitar or an oud and have at it with no complications. Just do their thing. But music about Israel is fraught with all the tensions and complexities of Israel itself. If the music is written by a non-Israeli, it also comes with all the tensions and complexities of our Diaspora perceptions. Which ends up with writers like me thinking much to hard (or not hard enough) about what it all means.
Israeli mashup-phenom Kutiman recently released a brand new track called “Thru-Jerusalem.” Like his previous collection of “Thru-You” videos, “Thru-Jerusalem” stitching together fragments of found sound and video into something brand new. Unlike T-Y, which featured video clips that Kutiman discovered on YouTube, T-J features video clips that Kutiman shot himself. What was found was the musicians and the moments, which Kutiman discovered walking around Jerusalem. Stitched together by Kutiman, they become a moving sonic landscape of a hopeful multi-cultural city. If you dig it, like I do, the track can be downloaded for free from SoundCloud.
Lawrence Dermer, an American BMI Award winning & Grammy nominated Songwriter and Producer (and Cantorial Soloist) released “We are Strong” back in 2008. I missed it then, but got pointed to it recently. We Are Strong has an upbeat ‘We are the World” kind of ‘unity through music’ vibe and contemporary world-beat sound. This is an earnest, big anthem stuff. If you dig it, which I don’t, you can get the track or album from CD Baby.
Of the two I find Kutiman’s “Thru-Jerusalem” the more compelling effort. Partially this reflects my personal taste… I’m not a big fan of Dermer’s smooth, radio-friendly anthem sound and wish he’d lose whatever effects processing he’s using to obscure his voice, but I love Kutiman’s sensibility. Kutiman has a great ear for the texture of sound and makes surprising sound combinations fit together beautifully.
This also reflects my read on the song narratives. Kutiman is an insider. His assemblage of Jerusalem musicians reflects both a realistic portrayal of Jerusalem (these are real Jerusalem musicians, after all) and Kutiman’s optimistic vision of Jerusalem (this varied group of musicians blending together into a unified, but not homogenized) whole. From the perspective of a Diaspora Jew who’s never been to Israel, it sounds about how I’d hope Jerusalem would sound if I could visit and wander around as Kutiman does. I wonder how real and how constructed that vision is. Is it a better version of reality than news reports show, or a delightful fiction?
Dermer’s song on the other hand feels jingoistic. When he sings “We are strong” it’s unclear who “we” are. He could mean all Israeli’s, but I don’t think so. Instead it feels inclusive of Jewish Israeli’s with only a passing nod at non-Jewish Israeli’s. Where Kutiman’s videos showing real musicans of different backgrounds being themselves, explicitly acknowledging the complexity of Israel, Dermer’s repetition of vague and banal slogans such as “what we believe we will become” and the constructed reality of him mugging in front of children who sing his song on cue, leaves “We are Strong” feeling strangely out of touch. This doesn’t seem to be a song for Israelis, instead it seems like a song to raise spirits of Diaspora Jews? If we’re strong, all Israel’s problems will just go away.
So who are we that dream and what is that dream? Do we (American Jews) fall behind Dermer’s sentimental utopian vision of happy children of all (Jewish?) races singing in unison? What dream do this children really share? Or do we (Israeli Jews and Muslims) accept Kutiman’s vision of Israeli adults existing together peacefully in a complex shared space? (Remember that this too is a dream. The collaboration of Kutiman’s musician’s only happen inside Kutiman’s mind and computer…they never actually meet in real life).
Maybe the answer is that either way, all we can do for now is dream.
