Idan Raichel: Folklore Music Is the Soundrack and the DNA of a Nation

Famous Israeli musician Idan Raichel is coming to Bulgaria on Saturday, September 17, for a concert that will open Tole-Fest, an event aimed at promoting music and sports as the purest forms of tolerance.

Novinite has asked Mr Raichel about world music, Bulgarian folklore, and his future plans. 

Mr Raichel, you bring your music to Bulgaria as an Ambassador of Peace and Tolerance. Apart from music, however, what is the key to making people more tolerant to those who are different?

Hello and thank you so much for the interview! I'm looking forward to coming to Bulgaria this upcoming weekend.

Apart from the music, the way we are bringing people together and trying to build bridges between cultures and between nations and people I think this is the first step for building tolerance and creating peace between people. Because first of all you need to consider the person next to you not an enemy because he is your neighbor, a neighbor you don't know a lot about and you need to be educated to learn about. First is education, and then tolerance to know there will be always differences and the acceptance of differences will create the peace between you. Not the will to try to change the other or to judge who is right and who is wrong.

What is your recipe for doing world music? Presumably, it is not enough to wrap traditional folklore in a more contemporary mold?

When I'm making my music in Israel people define it as mainstream music - and it is mainstream Israeli music. Once we are traveling outside Israel, people define it as "world music". Which is actually a great compliment because great world music, musicians or artists are bringing the soundtrack of places they are coming from -...