Oren Lavie

Oren Lavie's music doesn't come right at you through the front door; its elliptical nature is mysterious and dense and remains slightly unresolved. His vignettes of life are heartbreaking. his songs unfold like a collection of short stories in musical poetic form, bringing to mind songwriters the likes of Leonard Cohen and Jacque Brel.

Recorded in the intimate setting of his apartment, the album's acoustic arrangements and Oren's dark voice are underscored by distant chamber strings, suggesting images of wider landscapes unseen behind closed walls. The Opposite Side of The Sea is a collage of fragile moments, as much as it is an uncompromising presence of a new distinct voice.

Born in Tel-Aviv, Israel, Oren began his creative journey as a playwright. At the age of 21 he wrote and directed a play for the Israeli Fringe Theater Festival, which won the awards for best newcomer writer and director. In 1999 he moved to London on a scholarship to attend the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. While still at school he wrote a play which he later directed in an Off West-end theater to critical acclaim. The production was named by Time-Out London as one of the best 5 shows in London during its run. In 2002, Oren moved to NY where he gradually began to shift his focus from playwriting to a shorter form of storytelling, the song. Two years later he relocated to Berlin and began work on 'The Opposite Side of The Sea'.

The Opposite Side of the Sea was recorded in Oren's Berlin apartment during a period of three years and was released in Europe, in 2007, to positive reviews. But it wasn't until it has reached KCRW in California several months later that things began to happen; the album's repeated airplay attracted the attention of movie and television music supervisors, and before long the album track 'Her Morning Elegance' was picked to be featured in a Chevy Malibu commercial which debuted during the 2008 Grammys.

In January 2008 Oren released the album in the US on his own label, Blue Smile, named after the album's closing title.