Asia provides music that supports the poetry texts and gives them his own curious and idiosyncratic readings...

GENRE: Classical/Composer/Daniel Asia


Amichai Songs is comprised of poetry by the Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai, Israel's most prominent modern poet. The texts present an intriguing view of the modern Jewish Israeli experience. Amichai unwraps and unravels the relationship between the people of Israel, the Jews, the Situation (Israel's place in the Middle East, in all of its ramifications), the individual living in these circumstances, and his relationship to God and the natural world. Included are discussions of God's presence, slaughtered chickens, Auschwitz, the nature of life in Jerusalem/Israel, universal riddles, soldiering, and the natural world.


In all-Asia provides music that supports the texts and gives them his own curious and idiosyncratic readings. This means that the musical language is quite wide and inclusive, and is used to bring a deeper meaning and understanding to the texts. The music is Jewish in that Asia is Jewish, in the same way that Bach's works are Christian as he was a Lutheran. But it is of course universal in the manner that all fine music is just that-God willing.


Astrobiology and the Arts are interested in the implications of life beyond Earth. This suggests many questions. What does this mean regarding the view of ourselves in relationship to the cosmos, to ourselves, to God? How do we re-configure our relationship to others out there, and our relationships with those right here? How do we understand our place in time and space? How does this affect our everyday lives? Pines didn't seek to ask or answer these in his poems in Adrift on Blinding Light-but he does.


Pine's Last Poems, left on his desk upon his passing, were sent to Asia by his wife. They remained on my desk for a long time before I could confront them, as the final documents his friend left for us. They confront the dying, the ambiguity of Spring and death, and some unfinished business of our history, Vietnam. They are dedicated to Paul's memory.

Track Listing

• Amichai Songs: 1. God’s Hand is in the World
• Amichai Songs: 2. Jerusalem
• Amichai Songs: 3. Through Two Points Only One Straight Line Can Pass
• Amichai Songs: 4. Sonnet from the Voyage
• Amichai Songs: 5. Almost a Love Poem
• Amichai Songs: 6. A Young Soldier
• Adrift on Blinding Light: 1. Adrift on Blinding Light
• Adrift on Blinding Light: 2. The Voice is Not the Word
• Adrift on Blinding Light: 3. If Have Grown Hawk-Like
• Adrift on Blinding Light: 4. On a Good Day
• A Mask that Changes: 1. The Last Oracle
• A Mask that Changes: 2. Moments
• A Mask that Changes: 3. Response to the Major
• A Mask that Changes: 4. Unmasked

Additional Details

Label: Summit Records

Genre: Classical

Run Time: 43:07 mins

Region: 0

Release Date: 10/04/24

UPC: 099402829920