Chen Firsel’s ‘Believe In The Ending of The War’ is more than just an EP. It’s a three track “song cycle” that sends a message to the world, straight from the heart of Israel.
Recorded in the performer’s living room during the first half of 2023, the material is decidedly lo-fi. That, however, suits the material in hand, since the almost ghost-like nature of Firsel’s vocal and the fragile nature of parts of the music appear to mirror the transient aspects of life itself. ‘Believe In’ opens with a beautifully played acoustic guitar, with Chen’s finger-picked style taking the bulk of a sparse melody. Over the looping tune, his voice sits naturally, and his plain delivery occasionally takes on the presence of one of Fred Abong’s solo recordings, albeit with a higher tone. Having set a brilliant folk sound in place, his choice of stark lyric goes to work. “Break my grave, dig my bones”, he begins, mixing his words to highlight the chaos that surrounds him. “Go on cut-throat”, he continues, using the repetitive phrase as a frightening hook, and moving into the second part of the narrative, his high toned voice alerts the listener to a lack of sky, whilst the once circular melody breaks down. In a startling piece of closure, the notes fumble, the vocal melody cracks; and soon, the narrative ends, but in an unfinished way – presumably, again, its jarring approach is a metaphor for the state of a war-torn place.
The devastatingly short ‘The Ending of’ opens with a gorgeous descending melody which sounds like a long distant cousin of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Babe I’m Gonna Leave You’ put through a Leonard Cohen filter. Over the catchy melody, Firsel lays an extra layer of sound via a strummed guitar whilst he tells his audience of a “self destructive piece of mind” and a place where “nothing gets done”, before everything flows naturally into ‘The War’, a minimalist avant-garde piece where distant acoustic sounds are overlaid by a sampled voice who barks statements about how he “learned the war” and “learned to fight”. As the slow melody continues, the once quiet sounds increase in volume and the previous acoustic elements are replaced by a reverbed electric guitar which latches onto a similar melody to ‘Believe In’, suggesting that this bleakness has no clear end: the days bleed into weeks and the bleakness feels omnipresent.
This is massively different to Firsel’s prior works with Memory In Plant, and purer than his solo recordings as Sugarush. This is more about the moment and the message, but it’s a massively important message, delivered from the heart and from the eye of the storm. Whether or not you are drawn in by Firsel’s raw arrangements doesn’t matter. His plea is universal As he says himself: “this is about any war.” Music doesn’t have the power to stop needless violence, but it does have the power to make people sit up and listen – and think. As a mood piece, a thought piece and a beautifully honest musical sketch, ‘Believe…’ works well. A hugely evocative piece of minimalism, this recording demands the listeners’ full attention, and even after the last notes come to an inconclusive end – perhaps, because of that very reason – you’re left thinking about what you’ve heard. A very interesting offering, indeed.
September 2024