Percussion'- Kobi Hagoel

Kobi Hagoel (The literal translation of his name is "Jacob the redeemer . . .") is a magician of oriental percussion instruments. He is one of Yoel’s teachers and a professional creative musician who plays a wide variety of exotic instruments.

Have ever heard of a Zar? Rik? Kanjira? We tried a variety of drums and percussions in order to find what fit with every track. We discovered that the kangira, which is the tiniest, actually has the broadest sound.

For many tracks, Kobi recorded several different instruments so that we will mix to get a rich texture. As he was playing some of the fast -paced tracks it looked like he has 20 fingers . . . amazing!

In this video, Kobi is getting ready for Yoel’s Lecha Dodi. He is humming his original interpretation from what he remembers as the tune, not what Yoel wrote . . . This immediately raised our suspicion that he grew up in a prayer environment. Our investigation revealed some interesting reminiscing about the Salonika shul he frequented as child. He had no idea we are videoing him.

For those of you who don't happen to speak Hebrew, Kobi told us how at the age of 6 he was taken to shul with his friends and given a glass off arak. He can still feel the hit in the back of the throat to this very day – a good training, he said, for learning how to down alchohol . . .

It is common to record a few takes before achieving a good result. Nevertheless, we were surprised to do “Shalom Aleichem” in one take - the Angels were present!

Studio work is not all nice and dandy. There are challenges and tensions at times. However, the pictures capture the good moments!

Even Zacharia has moments of nachas.