Tel Aviv, Israel
Process Pop

The music that Israeli singer and keyboard player Noga Erez makes with her partner, Ori Rousso, is deep, dense and atmospheric. She created Off the Radar, her debut album, with synthesizers, and while tracks like “Noisy” and “Muezzin” may feature midtempo, electronic dance pulses, most of the album is more cinematic and cerebral, moving at an almost glacial pace. Erez addresses political repression and the decay of modern society with music full of ominous synthesizer tones, but “politics aren’t the only reason the music is so dark,” she says. “Ori and I search for sounds we like. We create the atmosphere from our musical influences. Our vision is a sonic vision. Sometimes that really fits well with the fact that we come from this crazy place/situation. I would call our music ‘process pop’ because what we do is more processing than protesting. To me, pop, dance and genres in general are only labels to explain something that goes much deeper. Our inspiration comes from talks we have, the world we live in and the movies and music that we like.” Erez played keyboards and sang in several bands before discovering the freedom offered by the unlimited sounds she could generate with a synthesizer and drum machine. Rousso taught her Ableton when her old band needed to use the program for their live shows. The pair clicked and started the collaboration that led to Off the Radar, and they’re currently working on polishing their live show. “We try to make our computer-based music as live as possible,” she says. “This became easier when drummer Ran Jacobovitz joined us. The way he’s able to play the broken beats that Ori and I created in the studio is mind-blowing. Ran has become an important part of this band. It used to be just me and Ran on stage, with Ori doing the sound. Now we’re working on doing a three-piece show. Ori will be there, too. Everything is going to be played live. This will be our little victory over the computer.”