Yair Yona

Israel isn't exactly known as a hotbed for acoustic steel-string guitar music, but guitarist/instrumentalist and all-around sonic ambassador Yair Yona seems determined to change all of that.

From his headquarters in Tel Aviv, where he also runs the fabulous Anova Music label and Small Town Romance blog, Yona is composing some of the most genre-bending music for solo steel-string heard since Sandy Bullopened up all the possibilities around the idiom in the 60's.

As a musician, Yona's story isn't terribly different than that of many guitarists who have experienced life-altering epiphanies upon hearing Bert Jansch for the first time. Instead of turning his back completely on rock and the cornucopia of sounds which swelled in his head, his musical trajectory placed the acoustic center stage for a wide panorama of musical styles and textures to envelop.

Remember , Yona's astonishing debut solo album, is a celebration of the Takoma Records school coarsely filtered through a multi-hued prism of sound, resulting in an intelligent collection of compositions delivered in a fully-formed and strikingly singular voice.

Originally issued in 2009 on anova, Remember received rave rumblings from the grassroots steel string blogs and fan sites, finding its way into the circle of steel-string heads. Reissued via our Resurrection Series, Remember is a fabulous and strikingly mature take on American and British guitar styles, updated with well-placed indie and post-rock flourishes and touches of Eastern European folk music.

Yair Yona's playing is fabulous throughout, utilizing alternate tunings, syncopations, and an immense compositional instinct to lead a Fahey-type acoustic sound across a smartly placed landscape of electronics, banjo, bass guitar and strings.
Tunes range in reference from Robbie Basho to Jack Rose and even Godspeed You! Black Emperor, comprising a truly ambitious yet highly accessible body of work.

Remember is a gorgeous work by a young guitarist distinguishing himself as one of the most vital members of the solo acoustic revival movement.

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