‘Lady of the Forest’ is established Israeli singer and known backing vocalist for Avishai Cohen’s ‘Aurora’ and ‘Seven Seas’. Karen Malka shares with us a...

‘Lady of the Forest’ is established Israeli singer and known backing vocalist for Avishai Cohen’s ‘Aurora’ and ‘Seven Seas’. Karen Malka shares with us a new approach. This album also features one track written and performed by Avishai Cohen. Karen Malka is one of Israel’s leading singer songwriters. Her formal training began at the age of 19 with various teachers, but she acquired most of her knowledge from the numerous musicians she’s co-operated with along the way, honing her skills in various styles including jazz, folk and soul. Lady of the Forest is Karen’s debut solo album. Some songs were written years before recording, “like seeds waiting underground to sprout”, as she puts it. The instrumental piece, for instance, was written when Karen was 18 and came about during sessions at home, suddenly carrying a whole new meaning. “Come with me”, another track, that came relatively late in the process, is based on a prayer, originally forty pages long, written by Meir Yanay. Karen copied the first few stanzas on a piece of paper and carried it in her purse for years; on the second day of rehearsing for this recording, she found that same piece of paper, which had been lying around the piano for several days, waiting. She wrote music to it that very night.