On the Tree for RIO/Avant-prog

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   On the Tree (על העץ) is an Israeli duo consisting of Tom Cohen Shoshan and Noam Cohen Raz who released their eponymous debut album in 2022. Unclassifiable by traditional genres, they play a very eclectic mix of avant-prog, avant-folk, and avant-pop, infused with bossa nova rhythms and jazz melodies, European, Ashkenazi, and Eastern modality, alt-pop progression, and art rock and folk-pop overtones, achieved through predominately acoustic instrumentation and a theatrical presentation. Uplifting and unapologetically avant-garde, On the Tree has no regard for conventional song structure, relying entirely on their captivating, and sometimes witty, songwriting and musicianship. Utilizing heavy amounts of dissonance and disharmony, On the Tree makes for a rewarding listen to those want to be challenged, but are upbeat enough to remain accessible for casual listeners.

A very small and local ensemble, not much info on them, so I mostly just wrote this one from the top of my head as it came to mind. No Facebook page or anything. Very cool and fun group, and worthy of inclusion on this site. Crossover prog, progressive Folk or Jazz Fusion could also work, but this is undeniably avant-garde (as mentioned four or five times above), it's just whether this "rock" or not. I opt for RIO/Avant-prog, with Crossover as a close second choice :)

Bandcamp

Edited by bardberic - October 24 2024 at 00:46

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bardberic Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Forum Senior Member Joined: November 02 2021 Location: PA, USA/Israel Status: Offline Points: 870	Post Options Post Reply Quote bardberic Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: On the Tree for RIO/Avant-prog Posted: October 22 2024 at 22:04
	On the Tree (על העץ) is an Israeli duo consisting of Tom Cohen Shoshan and Noam Cohen Raz who released their eponymous debut album in 2022. Unclassifiable by traditional genres, they play a very eclectic mix of avant-prog, avant-folk, and avant-pop, infused with bossa nova rhythms and jazz melodies, European, Ashkenazi, and Eastern modality, alt-pop progression, and art rock and folk-pop overtones, achieved through predominately acoustic instrumentation and a theatrical presentation. Uplifting and unapologetically avant-garde, On the Tree has no regard for conventional song structure, relying entirely on their captivating, and sometimes witty, songwriting and musicianship. Utilizing heavy amounts of dissonance and disharmony, On the Tree makes for a rewarding listen to those want to be challenged, but are upbeat enough to remain accessible for casual listeners. A very small and local ensemble, not much info on them, so I mostly just wrote this one from the top of my head as it came to mind. No Facebook page or anything. Very cool and fun group, and worthy of inclusion on this site. Crossover prog, progressive Folk or Jazz Fusion could also work, but this is undeniably avant-garde (as mentioned four or five times above), it's just whether this "rock" or not. I opt for RIO/Avant-prog, with Crossover as a close second choice :) Bandcamp Edited by bardberic - October 24 2024 at 00:46

yam yam Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Collaborator Crossover Team Joined: June 16 2011 Location: Kerberos Status: Offline Points: 6352	Post Options Post Reply Quote yam yam Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: October 23 2024 at 07:14
	Listened to the self-titled debut and found it really difficult to determine which sub genre might be the most appropriate one, and if they even belong on the site to begin with, since as you suggest above, there isn't really much of a 'rock' element to a lot of their music, and although there are some avant-garde passages in most of the songs that comprise it, is the album going to be considered sufficiently avant-garde as a whole to satisfy the ZART team? A very eclectic mix indeed - your description of the various genres that the music encompasses is spot on - and if there was more of a rock element evident in the music I'd probably be tempted to throw it over to that team in the first instance. Here's Tom Cohen Shoshan's YouTube channel, where you can find some cool videos as well as the full album playlist. Excellent music indeed, let's wait and see what others think... Edit: Awesome Prog link for evaluation teams: https://awesomeprog.com/artists/21900. I added all the missing supported links to their profile, and the artist is tagged as Playful Acoustic Exp Prog Avant Fusion/Jazz on there, so maybe my initial assessment is wrong. Edit 2: Although 'On The Tree' doesn't have a Facebook page, as stated above in the original post, it did have one up until February of this year. That page is now called תום כהן שושן - Tom Cohen Shoshan, and the 'On The Tree' project is no more. During the life of the project, Noam and Tom had worked as a couple, but in the advanced stages of making the album they broke up (though this had nothing to do with the music). The album and the three video clips above were completed and released, and although Noam and Tom continue to be friends, they decided that the 'On The Tree' project had reached its end. The 'On The Tree' project arose from a group of friends that had organized themselves to fight against oil drilling in the Golan Heights. They set up a protest tent, sang together, and this led to the creation of a project as part of the protest called שיר ביום 'Song of the Day'. Eventually the group became just a duo consisting of of Tom and Noam, whose songs dealt with the environment, deep ecology, love and relationships, and they started off by just playing small gigs, until finally one day Noam wanted them to record the many songs that they had accumulated (though in the end they had to choose only a few of them). When they started recording the songs, Tom wasn't that excited about the idea at all. The original idea was to record very simple versions consisting of just a piano and their two voices, but when they finally got into the studio, it felt like the songs needed extra arrangements and volume, so Tom played and wrote extra parts until he was satisfied with the results. What happened was that he fell in love with music and producing again, and he even took courses related to studio and recording work, which led to him producing a solo album that he was working on himself. The ''On The Tree' Facebook page has now become Tom's solo music page, but he has pledged that "all things from the past will stay here - the 'On The Tree' songs, the videos, the pictures, and more layers will be added in the next stage in the evolution and death of "On The Tree" - it's sad, happy, exciting all at the same time". Edited by yam yam - October 23 2024 at 16:22

yam yam Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Collaborator Crossover Team Joined: June 16 2011 Location: Kerberos Status: Offline Points: 6352	Post Options Post Reply Quote yam yam Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: October 31 2024 at 09:10
	The ZART team (which includes RIO/Avant) decided that this didn't belong in that sub so they moved the suggestion to Crossover, where I'm afraid there were two 'no' votes and one 'unsure'. We thought there were a few proggy passages here and there, but not enough to merit inclusion on PA - especially when also taking into account the limited 'rock' aspects of the music. An enjoyable, diverse and cleverly constructed album for sure though, so thanks for bringing it to our attention.