Uri Frost

Uri Frost

Uri Frost in concert, 2009
Background information
Birth name Uri Frost Kostman
Born (1962-12-22)December 22, 1962
Düsseldorf, Germany
Genres Indie rock, folk rock, experimental, lo-fi
Instruments Guitar
Bass
Synthesizer
Years active 1984-present
Labels Hed Arzi
Nana Disc
No Distribution
Earsay
Associated acts Kazbah, Hapliz, Carmela Gross Wagner, Reer, Rare, Katamine, Mambas

Uri Frost (born 1962; אורי פרוסט), is an Israeli rock guitarist, producer and director. Frost's dark and often intellectual art and music are informed by a sense of rootlessness and exile. As an introverted artist he has often refused to conduct media interviews. Yoav Kutner, Israel's acclaimed rock music critic wrote about Frost: "He is a unique voice in Israeli rock music and his restless guitar, filled with feedbacks is eminent in all the music groups he was a part of".[1]

Career

Early years

Uri Frost was born in Düsseldorf, Germany, December, 22nd, 1962. He spent his early childhood moving with his family between different countries. They moved to Brussels in 1964, to Rio de Janeiro in 1966, to Vienna in 1969 and at the age of 11, just two months before the 1973 Yom Kippur war, the family moved to Israel. As a teenager, his first guitar was the Gibson SG, a 150$ find (he was told about by Yoav Shaaya) on which he plays ever since.

1980s

Kazbah

In 1984 Frost went back to Rio de Janeiro, with the intention of staying there. He met Philippe Hemadou who played the Moog synthesizer and they started playing music together. They were later joined by Adriana Dolabella whom Frost showed how to play the Bass guitar. Together they formed the band Kazbah. The band was a part of the underground scene that started taking off in Rio de Janeiro in the mid-1980s. They recorded on a 4 channel tape and released several pop songs. One of them became a hit and was often played on the radio.

HaPliz

In 1988 Frost returned to Israel and together with "Shosho" Yoav Shaaya, a childhood friend. They formed the band HaPliz.[2] Later Shahar Levi joined on the Bass and Niss (who never disclosed his full name) on the drums. The band mixed rock and roll with a scent of middle eastern music. HaPliz is considered to "have been there ahead of their time a prepared the grounds for what was to follow later, through the generation of the 'Roxanne' bands".[3] Their single album "Behashpaat HaKishouf (בהשפעת הכישוף) is a "well constructed, brilliant array of songs that shows HaPliz in it's [sic] best moments", concludes the Jerusalem music critique Yoram Bar after returning from their show. He also wrote "HaPliz show in the Pargod had been the best Rock show I have experienced in my entire life"[4]

1990s

Carmela Gross Wagner

Frost later worked with Eran Zur on a project that was later known as Carmela Gross Wagner. They were joined by Ori Ballak (percussion) and Avshalom Kaspi (keyboards). In 1991 they recorded their debut album, Black Flower (Hebrew: פרח שחור). The album received plenty of attention but its financial success was limited. Carmela Gross Wagner is considered to have been a great influence on the Israeli sound of the 90's.[5] Later on, Frost left the band but continued working as guest musician and producer.

Film school

In 1992 Frost started studying filmmaking in sam spiegel school, Jerusalem. In 1995, he left Sam Spiegel after a dispute with the head of the school. Frost completed the 2nd year project with a film titled 22/D. The film was a Sci fi political tale that shows a few episodes in the life of a man who immigrated to Israel and is faced with a Zionist conspiracy. The film won the 1995 Best Experimental Short by the Israeli Film Institute.[6]

Paluma Twist

Together with an old friend, percussionist Arik Hayut, collaborated on the project titled Palloma Twist in 1994. They worked on different songs and released only one of them. It was a cover of The Soldier Song (שיר החייל) by Shlomo Artzi.

Reer

Between 1992 and 1995 Frost was a member of the band Reer. Together with Arik Hayut, Ran Slavin (Shalosh Het) and Adam Horovitz of Nosei Hamigbaat (נושאי המגבעת). They released two albums - Reer in 1993 and Private Pleasures (as Rare), in 1996.[7]

The London years

Between 1996 and 2000 Frost lived in London and wrote music for Theatre. He has written music for seven different plays among them 3 Short Breaths at Croydon Warehouse, Fever at Riverside Studios, People Show 105 at Young Vic studio. In 1999 he directed the theatre performance Miss, Did it Hurt When You Fell Down from Heaven, as part of the London festival for visual theatre.

2000s

In 2000 Uri Frost returned to Israel and from 2001 started to write music for dance. He directed and wrote music for Iteret and "Gaza" by Tamar Borer, Black Country, Tetris, Arnika for Noa Dar, Between 2002 and 2004 he collaborated with Ran Slavin on SuBo, an improvisational duo which used live electronic instruments and video. They performed in Austria, Slovania and Israel. In 2002 Composed soundtrack for the documentary film Garden (directed by Adi Barash and Ruthie Shatz) that tells the story of two Palestinian male prostitutes in downtown Tel Aviv. In 2005 Assaf Tager invited Uri Frost to produce Katamine's first album (Lag) and Frost also directed two video clips. Lag included nine original songs and a cover of the Butthole Surfers. The album was Album of the Year (2005) of Tel Aviv's "Haiir" (lit. The City) newspaper. Their second studio album was titled Forest of Bobo and was produced by Wharton Tiers.

Ressek Zar

In 2010 the collaboration between Uri Frost and Elyasaf Kowner yielded the music album Ressek Zar (from Hebrew lit. Foreign Purée), released and distributed by Hi Fidelity. It is a journey into an ever changing identity exploration made up of nine songs that range from folk to rock, expanding into psychedelic and country combined with multiple classical motifs. The album was hailed as "the embodiement of pure art. Kowner and Frost are in constant search and they give the listener that feeling of going into a museum of modern art".[8]

Mambas

Also in 2010 Frost co-founded Tel Aviv-based alternative electronic band Mambas with Jeki Ameamemet (vocals) and Gil Luz (keyboards). The trio's music incorporates elements of dance, noise and pop. The band's music, though based on electronic sounds, is played live, creating a combination of loop-based dance music and a live rock performance. In 2014 Frost produced the debut album of the Amsterdam and Tel Aviv-based band Hexenschuss by Mambas keyboarder Gil Luz and the drummer Assi Weitz (JAP, ex-Gone Bald).[9]

Selected discography

Work as director

Notes

  1. ↑ Yoav Kutner about Uri Frost in Mooma
  2. ↑ "רוק-בר - הפליז - למה לא זזים?". Rockbar.co.il. 1989-09-22. Retrieved 2010-06-20.
  3. ↑ "Blind Janitor - Review". Hasharat.co.il. Retrieved 2010-06-20.
  4. ↑ "MOOMA - המוסיקה של ישראל". Mooma.mako.co.il. Retrieved 2010-06-20.
  5. ↑ http://mooma.mako.co.il/Biography.asp?ArtistId=1971
  6. ↑ "Sam Spiegel - Film & Television School Jerusalem". Jsfs.co.il. 2009-03-02. Retrieved 2010-06-20.
  7. ↑ "MOOMA - המוסיקה של ישראל". Mooma.mako.co.il. Retrieved 2010-06-20.
  8. ↑ "תרבות - מתחת לכל ביקורת nrg - ...מתחת לכל ביקורת: מדור". Nrg.co.il. Retrieved 2010-06-20.
  9. ↑ Hexenschuss Album Release Retrieved 2014-10-03.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, April 22, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.