March 23 of 1980 was born March 23, 1980 Asaf Avidan in Jerusalem, son of diplomats employed at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After living for four years in Jamaica, he returned to Israel where military service and where he studied animation at the Bezalel Academy of Arts & Design in Jerusalem: his valid as a final project is called "Find love now", and gets top awards at the Haifa Film Festival. After graduating, Asaf moved to Tel Aviv, where he works as an animator; then, abruptly ended the relationship with his girlfriend at the time, decides to return to Jerusalem, leave their job and devote himself body and soul to the music. Six songs performed after breaking up with his girlfriend and the consequent lovesickness compose its debut Ep, "Now that you're leaving," which was released in 2006 and is well received by critics. In the same year, while working on a solo acoustic tour, Avidan gathers around him a team of musicians to accompany him: Hadas Kleinman, cello, guitar, Yoni Peled, Roi Sheleg, drums, and Ran Nir, on bass. Together, they form the Mojos, a group which achieves instant fame. After a tour in New York in 2007, Asaf Avidan and the Mojos get together in the recording studio to record the album "The reckoning": fifteen tracks that mix folk, blues and rock, which focus mostly on stories of love and betrayal. The band gets a remarkable success, and several record labels showing interested in producing it: Avidan, however, decides to continue as an independent, founded along with his brother Roie, which doubles as a manager, the Telmavar Records, which publishes "The reckoning" in March of 2008. Certified Gold and then Platinum, it becomes the best selling independent album in the whole history of Israel: "Time out Tel Aviv" appoints "album of the year. The second single, "Weak", he in turn the first places of the classics, and is chosen as the soundtrack of the film "l'arbre", directed by Julie Bertuccelli and starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, which will be presented at the Cannes Film Festival 2010. After the success, the band, increasingly demanded by the labels around Europe, embarks on a tour in the summer of 2009, across the old continent between concerts and festivals. At the end of the tour, Telmavar Records signs an agreement with Sony-Columbia for Europe, valid for "The reckoning" and for the next LP. The second album is called "Poor boy"/"Lucky man", and is published on 9 September 2009: the song that gives the title to the disc about a boy born with a hole in the place of the heart. In the following months, Asaf Avidan and the Group continued on their tour, not only in Europe but also in India, China, Canada and United States, constantly improving its reputation. Their way of playing, among other things, the Brandenburg Gate during the World Championships in Berlin, in Cannes during the closing night of the Film Festival in New York at Carnegie Hall in a concert tribute to the Who. Participate to the Solidays Festival in France, at Latitude in Britain and at Paleo in Switzerland, not to mention Germany and France television holdings. In 2010 Avidan and Associates released their third album, "Through the gale", a concept that tells the story of a blind and his troop-captain in search of immortality-who discover that a life without death is meaningless. At the beginning of 2012, Asaf leaves the band (after announcing a creative hiatus of indefinite duration back in July 2011, after a summer that had seen them sharing the stage with, among others, Lou Reed, Ben Harper and Robert Plant) and focuses on solo career: in that year is released an acoustic album, "Avidan in a box", which includes covers of his old tracks. The single "One day/Reckoning song" gets a worldwide success. On 13 February 2013, Asaf Avidan takes the stage of the Teatro Ariston in Sanremo during the second night of the Festival conducted by Fabio Fazio.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.