Archive for January, 2009

The amazing c.sides festival location…

Saturday, January 31st, 2009

so close to the shore…

Soundslike (Belgium) on Supershelter

Friday, January 30th, 2009

Soundslike from Belgium wrote a funny article about my Supershelter album… with a lot of flattering comparisons (among them: i sound like Sigur Ros with more people twisting knobs, Biosphere, but more tense, or like Aphex Twin with straight bass drums, or post rock without guitars…). Some things are, well, not quite precise… for example that they wrote that I am Israeli (which, as they write, should not necessarily stop you from running to the record shop and check out my album). For those among you that do not read Dutch: google translation services do a somewhat acceptable job…

Find the original article here.

“Afgaande op de naam zou je denken met een vettige disco of punky electroband te maken te hebben, genre LCD Soundsystem, Late Of The Pier of Digitalism, misschien een tikkeltje braver. Ever so wrong. Wat Glitterbug dan wel is laat zich makkelijkst omschrijven met genuanceerde vergelijkingen. Onderkoelde Gotan Project, in “Brontohouse”, even voorzichtig en aarzelend als tango maar arctisch van temperatuur. Biosphere, maar ritmischer, en Sabres Of Paradise, maar beklemmender. Ook nog: Autechre ten tijde van “Amber”, maar hermetischer. En: Sigur Rós met een extra man aan de electronicaknoppen. Maar die enkele vergelijkingen volstaan niet. GB is ook moeilijk voor één gat te vangen puur omdat het zo eclectisch is. Geen enkel van bovenstaande vergelijkingen sluit bijvoorbeeld perfect voor “The Things I Long To Do” en “Oh My Hick!”, zo repetitief en naar klassiek neigend dat ze op de laatste van Aphex Twin hadden kunnen staan. Ook verder op de plaat blijft een klassieke approach aan de orde, hoewel Glitterbug nooit in de new age val trapt. En misschien is die classical touch wel de enige echte rode draad door de plaat. Zo zou postrock klinken zonder gitaren, schiet me te binnen. Of is het niet gewoon de zoveelste verdoken minimal release, durf ik me nog afvragen. Maar nee, want daarvoor gebeurt er dan weer net iets te veel op te korte tijd. Kortom, behoorlijk eigenwijs schijfje. En als u zich in één van de voornoemde referenties kunt vinden, zeker het proberen waard. Glitterbug is een Israëli. Laat dat u niet tegenhouden, noch al te snel naar de platenwinkel lopen. Uitverkocht zal hij niet rap zijn.”

12 more days…

Friday, January 30th, 2009

…until c.sides 2009 opens its doors in Tel Aviv… sooo exciting!

“Supershelter” in Top 10 Albums of 2008…

Friday, January 23rd, 2009

Nowamuzika, a leading polish music magazine, voted my “supershelter”-album as number 6 in their top 10 albums of 2008. Hurray!

Marcin Czubala was so nice to translate the headline regarding my album to me:

“Epickie techno flirtujące z zupełnie odmiennymi gatunkami – miejskim folkiem czy muzyką klasyczną. Potęga brzmienia i niezwykły klimat.”

which means:

“Epic techno flirting with totally different genres, from city folk to classical music. Big, powerful sound and incredible atmosphere.”

How very nice!!!

Back in Tel Aviv

Friday, January 23rd, 2009

We are back in Tel Aviv. It was a little cloudy, but perfect 24°C, and the beach was so empty… because all the Tel Avivians must have thought that its such lousy weather out there…

Ach, and all the amazing street kittens:

KEYS 02/09 with a loooong glitterbug interview…

Friday, January 16th, 2009

When i first saw this, i was shocked: Albrecht Piltz of the KEYS magazine and I had a really great time during the interview, but in the end it’s usually half a page in the printed magazine if you are lucky… this time it was four (!) entire pages, mostly filled with me talking. A lot to read… the publishing house gave me the friendly permission to post it here. The article was published in the latest issue, keys 02/09.

You can either read the article offline and download it as PDF here or click on the images below.

Keys 02/09 page 1

Keys 02/09 page 1


Keys 02/09 page 2

Keys 02/09 page 2


Keys 02/09 page 3

Keys 02/09 page 3


Keys 02/09 page 4

Keys 02/09 page 4

Good Bye, dear Inge.

Thursday, January 15th, 2009
Inge and me in Koblenz in 2004

Inge and me in Koblenz in 2004

Last evening Ronnis grandmother, Inge Ayalon (born Rosenbusch) died of a heart failure, at the age of 87. She fled Germany for the obvious reasons in 1938 and settled with her parents in Haifa. She was one of the most amazing people I have met in my life, and will be horribly missed by everybody that had the luck to meet this funny, witty, sharp, amazing (and a billion things more) woman.

glitterbug in Tel Aviv

Wednesday, January 14th, 2009
the view from our Tel Aviv balcony

the view from our Tel Aviv balcony

I landed safely in Tel Aviv yesterday, and as anticipated, all is calm and beautiful, and if i would not know better, i would have no clue that there is a war going on only 150 km away from here. Which makes it a little easier and way more complicated to be here at the same time. Not thinking of the war, it’s pampering 20 degree Celsius weather here (aaah! thinking of the snowy cold in Germany right now…), and way warmer when sitting in the sun. I just had a freshly squeezed pomegranate juice. Nice little burekas for breakfast. Our neighbors had a techno party last night… meaning: it’s all normal here. And not normal at the same time. Which is really hard to explain to somebody that has not been here before. This place is so amazing and beautiful and has so much to offer, yet is breaking your heart all the time.

glitterbug gigs?!??

Monday, January 12th, 2009

Before I fly out: there have actually been a lot of requests from you guys (thank you so much!!!) about the when and where of me playing live or DJing- well, the next gig will presumably only take place at the next c.sides festival in Tel Aviv (together with Ronni Shendar doing the live visuals), and I will only return from the Middle East in March and wills start touring Europe around then, with plans for the US and Canada in the fall. I have a new booking agency, and something tells me that its going to be massive… and I can’t wait! Dates will be published here as well as on my myspace profile.

Off to Israel

Monday, January 12th, 2009

As some of you out there might know, i will leave Cologne for Tel Aviv tomorrow for the next edition of the c.sides festival. There might be fewer post around these parts due to beautiful 20 hour workdays that are awaiting me for the next four weeks- but you can follow our activities on our production blog. Wish us and everybody in the region a lot of luck- we might need it. A lot actually.

Here is a little video of the 2006 edition of c.sides, back in the days still in Jerusalem: