As previously announced, Israeli duo Deep’a & Biri have a new album on the way.
Central to the Israeli club scene, Deep’a & Biri have long been defying expectations even within a community they helped construct. Serving as resident DJs, activists and bookers for Tel Aviv’s Barzilay Club, the pair helped build a transcendent club scene. Influential artists such as Robert Hood, Derrick May, Rødhad, Ben Klock, and Moritz Von Oswald have all passed through the club. As the duo held down dozens of parties with dozens of DJs, there was no “eureka” moment for their emerging sound; just a steady stream of inspiring electronic music, much of which left an indelible imprint on the pair.
Now based in Berlin, for Deep’a & Biri, things are much the same even if the landscape and the city are different. Always rooted in the fertile ground between machines and emotion, on their second full-length LP, Dominance—a follow up to 2013’s Emotions, Visions, Changes—the duo “demonstrate a unique grasp of the sensitive, unfolding relationship between man and machine.” We’re told that Dominance “flawlessly segues between forcefulness and weightlessness.”
The album’s distinctive artwork comes from the studio of Jewish orthodox artist Avraham Guy Barchil, who forged a powerful connection with Deep’a, and was immediately drawn to the “weird atmosphere, amazing technique and emotions involved with his work.” Perhaps one of the most interesting painters from Israel, Avraham is known for his unique perspective, taking his inspiration from the Zohar—the foundational work in the literature of Jewish mystical thought known as Kabbalah. The ambiguous figures represent mystical aspects of the Torah (the five books of Moses), as well as material on mysticism and mythical cosmogony.
Ahead of the LP, which lands on March 23, the duo answered some questions and shared an exclusive XLR8R edit of “Avicenna,” which can be downloaded via the WeTransfer button below.
This is your second album following your debut on DJ Hell’s Gigolo label in 2013. Where does the new record find you as artists compared to the previous LP?
Five years is a long time to understand better how and what you want to say. It also reflects a lot of experience we’ve gained while travelling and running our events, I guess we took the time to dive deeper into the music we love. On this album, we focused on more emotional and hypnotic electronic stuff, the “storytelling” flow was very important to us.
You have chosen to release this LP on your own Black Crow imprint. Tell us about the label and what your goals have been as owners.
We set up the label few years ago in order to release music that inspires us. To be honest, there are no goals, business plans or release schedules; we are just consistently looking for emotional quality electronic music. We don’t search for one specific genre. When it comes and there is a good connection with the artist we will go for it.
How are things in Tel Aviv and Israel at the moment, in the music scene and in general?
We think that the last year was probably the best year ever for house and techno in Tel Aviv with clubs totally booming and international festival brands coming in. In the music aspect there is a strong output from Israel: artists like Red Axes, Yotam Avni, Tv.Out, Hakimonu, Dot, Yogg, Pharaoh, PRZ and many many more put out some high-quality releases.
Tell us about the album artwork and the Jewish Orthodox painter behind them.
We came across Avraham Guy’s artworks by mistake, it was while we waited for a meeting—we randomly looked into one of his books that was just standing there and were fascinated immediately with his weird dystopian painting. Later on, we met and learned that he gets his inspiration from the Zohar book, which is the Jewish mystical part from the Kabbalah, it’s a super deep spiritual book that was kept hidden for 900 years. Although we are creating and coming from very different worlds and background, things connected together in an amazing way and we are very happy to let him do the art for the label.
Avicenna (XLR8R Edit)
