AVISHAI COHEN “Ashes to Gold”

ARTIST

Avishai Cohen

ALBUM TITLE

“Ashes to Gold”

LABEL

ECM

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A confirmation – and a step closer to the hour of true feeling. With his sixth release for ECM, Avishai Cohen delivers his most ambitious and emotionally charged project to date. Ashes to Gold offers both continuity and departure compared to his earlier albums for Manfred Eicher’s label. Continuity is found in the instantly recognizable sound of the Tel Aviv–born trumpeter, long based in New York, and in the trusted format of his acoustic quartet, featuring pianist Yonathan Avishai, bassist Barak Mori, and drummer Ziv Ravitz.

The departure lies in the album’s dramatic suite, which lends the record its title and forms its emotional core. Unlike in the past, when Cohen would bring music into the studio and leave much of the interpretation to improvisation, this time he gave his bandmates specific instructions for the suite’s five movements. “Usually, the band didn’t see the music until the studio. My attitude was: ‘This is what I’ve written; give me your improvised interpretation.’ But this time Yonathan and Barak were able to study the music in advance, and we had a week to work through it in far greater detail than usual. I’ve never been so specific about what I wanted to hear. Every bar, every rhythmic emphasis, every crescendo was discussed and defined. We also talked about how the notes should be played, placed, phrased, and what each of us would do in each section,” Cohen explains.

The title Ashes to Gold refers to the Japanese art of kintsugi, in which broken ceramics are repaired with gold, transforming fragments into something stronger and more beautiful. For Cohen, the metaphor is tied directly to the tragedy of October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages. Cohen had planned to spend that time in Israel writing new music – plans shattered by events. The temptation to cancel the tour and recording was strong, but ultimately he chose to bear witness through music.

The suite unfolds as a sequence of drama, despair, anger, mourning, and hope. Cohen even adds flute in some of the most lyrical and serene passages, expanding his palette beyond the trumpet. The album closes with a reprise of the Adagio assai from Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major, reworked by Cohen’s teenage daughter Amalia. Its simple, captivating melody brings a sense of fragile hope after the darkness.

Here the music itself becomes a prayer – a hope that the ceasefire then signed will endure and mark the beginning of a return to light.

—Ivo Franchi

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