Kabbalah Dream Orchestra blends Jewish with everything

By Toshio Suzuki

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Not every day does a musical group come to town that can sing a three-part harmony in Hebrew. Kabbalah Dream Orchestra, on a West Coast promotional tour for their debut CD "Ancient of Days," performs Aug. 22 at the Clinton Street Theater.
It isn't just the ancient tongue that makes KDO a worldly musical act. No, they have gathered and borrowed genres from multiple hemispheres to create a mixture of sounds on their album.
The end product is consistent Jewish melodies that have the ability to take even the English-only listener to far-away places.
In a recent e-mail interview with the Jewish Review, bandleader Rabbi Shalom Pasternak, who has fled his home of Tsfat for Rechovat, explained his musical group, which he labeled as a mixture of Jazz, R&B, soul and electronica.
"I had the idea to take mystical Jewish melodies, specifically those of the Chabad tradition, and put them to a modern beat," said Pasternak, who together with producer and flamenco guitarist, Dan Fries, spent eight months to record their album in Israel. "Each track tries to create a different texture to bring out the subtle harmonies and beauty of the niggunim (traditional melodies)."

While longer than the span of some musical careers, one can only assume eight months is how long it takes to create a heavily produced, dreamy album that has several songs over 10 minutes and none under five.
Almost every song available for listening at myspace.com/kabbalisticdreamorchestra begins with a single voice chanting in Hebrew. After several bars of this, it's anyone's guess. Not only are the influences and derivatives of their music flying around the globe with each song number, but the instruments, synthesized or not, are changing too.
"Poltavavision" could best be described as a slow pop ballad with heavy electronic overlay.
Minutes later, "Avenu Malkenu" provides some xylophone, a Jazz piano solo and even chorus lyrics in English.
"Ballroom Angels" offers another change of pace to keep listeners alert with its Latin Salsa flavor, including vocals that could be the spoken dreams of "all the angels in the ballroom wearing their best wigs."
And if this is not enough diversity, the next track might best be described as something off a Boyz to Men album—and that's not necessarily a bad thing.
KDO's stop in Portland will be extra special for Pasternak, who spent several years here studying with Rabbi Moshe Wilhelm of Chabad Lubavitch of Oregon and whom he now considers his "life-long spiritual guide."
Rabbi Wilhelm said attending the KDO concert is not only a good idea because of the quality musicianship that will be on display, but also because it can be a way for the local Jewish community to show support for Israelis who have been displaced because of war. Tickets are $6.
The music of KDO cannot not be pigeonholed to a specific aisle in the local CD store.
KDO's repertoires could be called unique pop music, were it not for the Hebrew chanting, which isn't exactly pop.
Also, the more than 140 minutes of material on "Ancient of Days," which Pasternak says is a translation that refers to the "highest comprehensible attribute of God," sets the CD apart from pop. Clearly, KDO is considerably more ambitious than most pop offerings.
The Clinton Street Theater is located 2522 SE Clinton St., at its intersection with SE 26th Avenue.