www.darshanproject.com/  
www.cannupahanska.com/ 

White-robed mystics gather in a field to sing and recite sensuous poetry. They summon the divine feminine, whom they refer to as the Sabbath Bride. Over time, this sense of spiritual creativity and these prayerful texts come to provide the template for the traditional opening sequence to Friday night services, known as Kabbalat Shabbat.

Centuries later, two artists of the same faith also long to sing a new song. They dive into to the communal pool of poetry and prayer to engage the wisdom of the past in a creative musical conversation.

“Those earlier mystics took an active role in their tradition, creating a musical montage of sacred texts, including selections of older canonical works as well as their own poems,” muses NYC-based MC EPrhyme (Eden Pearlstein). “This mystical mix-tape of sorts became the standard liturgy for generations to follow.  Because they are so densely symbolic, Kabbalistic lyrics  are notoriously hard to translate or incorporate into popular form or fashion. But we decided to take the leap.”

The leap from esoteric liturgical tradition to gritty rap and world grooves may seem huge, but it’s a natural one for New York’s Darshan. Jewish-soul singer, multi-instrumentalist, and recently ordained cantor Basya Schechter (Pharaoh's Daughter) and neo-Hassidic underground rapper ePRHYME spent two years working on Raza (Chant Records; release: March 9, 2018). With oud and flow, with exultant choral arrangements and spitfire lyrics, Raza transforms the traditional prayers and mystical poetry recited on Friday night into a work of sacred pop art.

“These songs have a lot of entry points. Although, some of the lyrics are in Hebrew and even Aramaic, which you may not understand if you didn’t grow up Jewish, you can dig into the meta-poetic raps, sink into the cyclical trance, or dance to the deep rhythms” reflects Schechter. “There are a lot of diverse elements at play on this album, from ukulele inflected singer-songwriter choruses to Middle Eastern taksims, classic breakbeats, North African rhythms, and free-form improvisation. While the vibe of the music is very urban and even electronic at times, the roots of the music come from mystical artists whom you might consider the hippies of their age.”

{full story below}

In the 16th century, a group of Jewish scholars and seekers created a new collection of songs and poems to welcome the Sabbath. This collage of ancient Psalms, Zoharic verses, and their own esoteric poetry, commonly referred to as Kabbalat Shabbat, still begins many services on Friday evening marking the shift from ordinary weekly time to a heightened awareness of the divine on the Sabbath.

Fast forward to a 21st-century porch on Fire Island, where Basya Schechter serves as seasonal cantor for a local synagogue. There, Schechter and Pearlstein began experimenting with new arrangements/compositions based on these liturgical texts, adding new layers of melody and meaning to the communal canon. With a deep interest in the connection between music, poetry, and their own religious experience, the duo set out to create a strikingly fresh interpretation of Kabbalat Shabbat, transforming long-recited prayers into social commentary, seductive songs, and existential summons to return our attention to the magic and holiness of all creation.

“As soon as Eden arrived on Friday, we’d start working,” recalls Schechter. “I’d start singing melodies and Eden would go out on the porch and rap his new commentaries.” Then, as the summer sun was sinking low in the sky, they would open up a small wooden building bounded by water on both sides for Sabbath evening services. The small congregation gathered there would receive, respond, and help reflect upon their next creation.

As the songs coalesced, Schechter drew on her long-standing musical friendships to find the right instrumental accompaniment. Their first choice was Tamer Pinarbasi, a Turkish kanun (zither) player who had worked with Schechter on numerous projects and joined the duo for a week-long residency at John Zorn’s The Stone space.

“We had a strong relationship with Tamer,” explains Schechter. “We wanted his sound on the more expansive mystical pieces. It was an instrumental corollary to what Eden was doing in his raps, providing a looser thread to break out of the structured form of the melodies.” Tamer’s masterful Kanun playing defines the vibe on numerous tracks throughout the album such as “These are the Journeys.”

Once they got into the studio, the groove became more anchored through Shanir Blumenkranz’s (Yemen Blues, Abraxas, Zorn) driving bass and Aaron Johnston’s (Brazilian Girls) unwavering pulse, moving effortlessly between kit and live-triggered 808.  They also joined forces early on with producer Frederik Rubens (Brazilian Girls, Avishai Cohen, Forro in the Dark), who gave the album a well-honed electronic edge (the synthwave pleasures of “Let there Be Light”). Together, the core group embraced everything from Manu Chao-tinged reggae (“Sing a New Song”), to North African gimbri-driven trance (“Arrives the Bride”). Perfectly placed guest spots from keyboardist Jason Lindner (Bowie, Now Vs. Now), guitarist Gabriel Gordon (Natalie Merchant), cellist Noah Hoffeld (Natalie Merchant, Krishna Das), and multi-reedist Jessica Lurie (Zion80), expand the sonic palette even further.

Miraculously, these wide-ranging influences never lose their focus throughout the album: welcoming the bride and renewing one’s connection to the Divine through poetry, creating community through song, honoring the deeper layers of text and tradition. “Our main difficulty was cracking the nut of these mystical texts,” says Pearlstein. “With her melodic arrangements, Basya is trying to speak through the poems, or let them speak through her, in a way that unpacks their inner essence. My lyrics aim to convey my own personal experience  of an often self-reflexive and soul searching conversation with these prayers and practices. In our own ways we’re both attempting to distill some of the core elements  embedded within these highly  coded poems in order to make them accessible--and danceable.”

“Raza’ means secret in Aramaic, and it’s the title of a selection from the Zohar included in Kabbalat Shabbat,” says Schechter. “The main metaphor is that of the above and below, time and eternity, feminine and masculine, all uniting on the Sabbath.”

This dynamic combination of erotic and esoteric, sensuous and sacred, personal and divine lies at the heart of how Darshan expresses their experience of the Sabbath. Darshan’s interpretations of these classic texts make this tension palpable, turning traditional prayers  into something contemporary people can relate to, be moved by, and ultimately move with.

White-robed mystics gather in a field to sing and recite sensuous poetry. They summon the divine feminine, whom they refer to as the Sabbath Bride. Over time, this sense of spiritual creativity and these prayerful texts come to provide the template for the traditional opening sequence to Friday night services, known as Kabbalat Shabbat.

Centuries later, two artists of the same faith also long to sing a new song. They dive into to the communal pool of poetry and prayer to engage the wisdom of the past in a creative musical conversation.

“Those earlier mystics took an active role in their tradition, creating a musical montage of sacred texts, including selections of older canonical works as well as their own poems,” muses NYC-based MC EPrhyme (Eden Pearlstein). “This mystical mix-tape of sorts became the standard liturgy for generations to follow.  Because they are so densely symbolic, Kabbalistic lyrics  are notoriously hard to translate or incorporate into popular form or fashion. But we decided to take the leap.”

The leap from esoteric liturgical tradition to gritty rap and world grooves may seem huge, but it’s a natural one for New York’s Darshan. Jewish-soul singer, multi-instrumentalist, and recently ordained cantor Basya Schechter (Pharaoh's Daughter) and neo-Hassidic underground rapper ePRHYME spent two years working on Raza (Chant Records; release: March 9, 2018). With oud and flow, with exultant choral arrangements and spitfire lyrics, Raza transforms the traditional prayers and mystical poetry recited on Friday night into a work of sacred pop art.

“These songs have a lot of entry points. Although, some of the lyrics are in Hebrew and even Aramaic, which you may not understand if you didn’t grow up Jewish, you can dig into the meta-poetic raps, sink into the cyclical trance, or dance to the deep rhythms” reflects Schechter. “There are a lot of diverse elements at play on this album, from ukulele inflected singer-songwriter choruses to Middle Eastern taksims, classic breakbeats, North African rhythms, and free-form improvisation. While the vibe of the music is very urban and even electronic at times, the roots of the music come from mystical artists whom you might consider the hippies of their age.”

{full story below}

In the 16th century, a group of Jewish scholars and seekers created a new collection of songs and poems to welcome the Sabbath. This collage of ancient Psalms, Zoharic verses, and their own esoteric poetry, commonly referred to as Kabbalat Shabbat, still begins many services on Friday evening marking the shift from ordinary weekly time to a heightened awareness of the divine on the Sabbath.

Fast forward to a 21st-century porch on Fire Island, where Basya Schechter serves as seasonal cantor for a local synagogue. There, Schechter and Pearlstein began experimenting with new arrangements/compositions based on these liturgical texts, adding new layers of melody and meaning to the communal canon. With a deep interest in the connection between music, poetry, and their own religious experience, the duo set out to create a strikingly fresh interpretation of Kabbalat Shabbat, transforming long-recited prayers into social commentary, seductive songs, and existential summons to return our attention to the magic and holiness of all creation.

“As soon as Eden arrived on Friday, we’d start working,” recalls Schechter. “I’d start singing melodies and Eden would go out on the porch and rap his new commentaries.” Then, as the summer sun was sinking low in the sky, they would open up a small wooden building bounded by water on both sides for Sabbath evening services. The small congregation gathered there would receive, respond, and help reflect upon their next creation.

As the songs coalesced, Schechter drew on her long-standing musical friendships to find the right instrumental accompaniment. Their first choice was Tamer Pinarbasi, a Turkish kanun (zither) player who had worked with Schechter on numerous projects and joined the duo for a week-long residency at John Zorn’s The Stone space.

“We had a strong relationship with Tamer,” explains Schechter. “We wanted his sound on the more expansive mystical pieces. It was an instrumental corollary to what Eden was doing in his raps, providing a looser thread to break out of the structured form of the melodies.” Tamer’s masterful Kanun playing defines the vibe on numerous tracks throughout the album such as “These are the Journeys.”

Once they got into the studio, the groove became more anchored through Shanir Blumenkranz’s (Yemen Blues, Abraxas, Zorn) driving bass and Aaron Johnston’s (Brazilian Girls) unwavering pulse, moving effortlessly between kit and live-triggered 808.  They also joined forces early on with producer Frederik Rubens (Brazilian Girls, Avishai Cohen, Forro in the Dark), who gave the album a well-honed electronic edge (the synthwave pleasures of “Let there Be Light”). Together, the core group embraced everything from Manu Chao-tinged reggae (“Sing a New Song”), to North African gimbri-driven trance (“Arrives the Bride”). Perfectly placed guest spots from keyboardist Jason Lindner (Bowie, Now Vs. Now), guitarist Gabriel Gordon (Natalie Merchant), cellist Noah Hoffeld (Natalie Merchant, Krishna Das), and multi-reedist Jessica Lurie (Zion80), expand the sonic palette even further.

Miraculously, these wide-ranging influences never lose their focus throughout the album: welcoming the bride and renewing one’s connection to the Divine through poetry, creating community through song, honoring the deeper layers of text and tradition. “Our main difficulty was cracking the nut of these mystical texts,” says Pearlstein. “With her melodic arrangements, Basya is trying to speak through the poems, or let them speak through her, in a way that unpacks their inner essence. My lyrics aim to convey my own personal experience  of an often self-reflexive and soul searching conversation with these prayers and practices. In our own ways we’re both attempting to distill some of the core elements  embedded within these highly  coded poems in order to make them accessible--and danceable.”

“Raza’ means secret in Aramaic, and it’s the title of a selection from the Zohar included in Kabbalat Shabbat,” says Schechter. “The main metaphor is that of the above and below, time and eternity, feminine and masculine, all uniting on the Sabbath.”

This dynamic combination of erotic and esoteric, sensuous and sacred, personal and divine lies at the heart of how Darshan expresses their experience of the Sabbath. Darshan’s interpretations of these classic texts make this tension palpable, turning traditional prayers  into something contemporary people can relate to, be moved by, and ultimately move with.

White-robed mystics gather in a field to sing and recite sensuous poetry. They summon the divine feminine, whom they refer to as the Sabbath Bride. Over time, this sense of spiritual creativity and these prayerful texts come to provide the template for the traditional opening sequence to Friday night services, known as Kabbalat Shabbat.

Centuries later, two artists of the same faith also long to sing a new song. They dive into to the communal pool of poetry and prayer to engage the wisdom of the past in a creative musical conversation.

“Those earlier mystics took an active role in their tradition, creating a musical montage of sacred texts, including selections of older canonical works as well as their own poems,” muses NYC-based MC EPrhyme (Eden Pearlstein). “This mystical mix-tape of sorts became the standard liturgy for generations to follow.  Because they are so densely symbolic, Kabbalistic lyrics  are notoriously hard to translate or incorporate into popular form or fashion. But we decided to take the leap.”

The leap from esoteric liturgical tradition to gritty rap and world grooves may seem huge, but it’s a natural one for New York’s Darshan. Jewish-soul singer, multi-instrumentalist, and recently ordained cantor Basya Schechter (Pharaoh's Daughter) and neo-Hassidic underground rapper ePRHYME spent two years working on Raza (Chant Records; release: March 9, 2018). With oud and flow, with exultant choral arrangements and spitfire lyrics, Raza transforms the traditional prayers and mystical poetry recited on Friday night into a work of sacred pop art.

“These songs have a lot of entry points. Although, some of the lyrics are in Hebrew and even Aramaic, which you may not understand if you didn’t grow up Jewish, you can dig into the meta-poetic raps, sink into the cyclical trance, or dance to the deep rhythms” reflects Schechter. “There are a lot of diverse elements at play on this album, from ukulele inflected singer-songwriter choruses to Middle Eastern taksims, classic breakbeats, North African rhythms, and free-form improvisation. While the vibe of the music is very urban and even electronic at times, the roots of the music come from mystical artists whom you might consider the hippies of their age.”

{full story below}

In the 16th century, a group of Jewish scholars and seekers created a new collection of songs and poems to welcome the Sabbath. This collage of ancient Psalms, Zoharic verses, and their own esoteric poetry, commonly referred to as Kabbalat Shabbat, still begins many services on Friday evening marking the shift from ordinary weekly time to a heightened awareness of the divine on the Sabbath.

Fast forward to a 21st-century porch on Fire Island, where Basya Schechter serves as seasonal cantor for a local synagogue. There, Schechter and Pearlstein began experimenting with new arrangements/compositions based on these liturgical texts, adding new layers of melody and meaning to the communal canon. With a deep interest in the connection between music, poetry, and their own religious experience, the duo set out to create a strikingly fresh interpretation of Kabbalat Shabbat, transforming long-recited prayers into social commentary, seductive songs, and existential summons to return our attention to the magic and holiness of all creation.

“As soon as Eden arrived on Friday, we’d start working,” recalls Schechter. “I’d start singing melodies and Eden would go out on the porch and rap his new commentaries.” Then, as the summer sun was sinking low in the sky, they would open up a small wooden building bounded by water on both sides for Sabbath evening services. The small congregation gathered there would receive, respond, and help reflect upon their next creation.

As the songs coalesced, Schechter drew on her long-standing musical friendships to find the right instrumental accompaniment. Their first choice was Tamer Pinarbasi, a Turkish kanun (zither) player who had worked with Schechter on numerous projects and joined the duo for a week-long residency at John Zorn’s The Stone space.

“We had a strong relationship with Tamer,” explains Schechter. “We wanted his sound on the more expansive mystical pieces. It was an instrumental corollary to what Eden was doing in his raps, providing a looser thread to break out of the structured form of the melodies.” Tamer’s masterful Kanun playing defines the vibe on numerous tracks throughout the album such as “These are the Journeys.”

Once they got into the studio, the groove became more anchored through Shanir Blumenkranz’s (Yemen Blues, Abraxas, Zorn) driving bass and Aaron Johnston’s (Brazilian Girls) unwavering pulse, moving effortlessly between kit and live-triggered 808.  They also joined forces early on with producer Frederik Rubens (Brazilian Girls, Avishai Cohen, Forro in the Dark), who gave the album a well-honed electronic edge (the synthwave pleasures of “Let there Be Light”). Together, the core group embraced everything from Manu Chao-tinged reggae (“Sing a New Song”), to North African gimbri-driven trance (“Arrives the Bride”). Perfectly placed guest spots from keyboardist Jason Lindner (Bowie, Now Vs. Now), guitarist Gabriel Gordon (Natalie Merchant), cellist Noah Hoffeld (Natalie Merchant, Krishna Das), and multi-reedist Jessica Lurie (Zion80), expand the sonic palette even further.

Miraculously, these wide-ranging influences never lose their focus throughout the album: welcoming the bride and renewing one’s connection to the Divine through poetry, creating community through song, honoring the deeper layers of text and tradition. “Our main difficulty was cracking the nut of these mystical texts,” says Pearlstein. “With her melodic arrangements, Basya is trying to speak through the poems, or let them speak through her, in a way that unpacks their inner essence. My lyrics aim to convey my own personal experience  of an often self-reflexive and soul searching conversation with these prayers and practices. In our own ways we’re both attempting to distill some of the core elements  embedded within these highly  coded poems in order to make them accessible--and danceable.”

“Raza’ means secret in Aramaic, and it’s the title of a selection from the Zohar included in Kabbalat Shabbat,” says Schechter. “The main metaphor is that of the above and below, time and eternity, feminine and masculine, all uniting on the Sabbath.”

This dynamic combination of erotic and esoteric, sensuous and sacred, personal and divine lies at the heart of how Darshan expresses their experience of the Sabbath. Darshan’s interpretations of these classic texts make this tension palpable, turning traditional prayers  into something contemporary people can relate to, be moved by, and ultimately move with.