Being a singer-songwriter myself, I’m on a constant search for other contemporary voices. When listening to other artists, I look to be inspired, touched and challenged.
The first time I heard Keren Ann’s music, it was during my music studies in NYC (back in 2023). The first song I heard was ‘Not going anywhere’ and it captured me immediately. Keren Ann’s honesty and though very fragile, her strong sense of self, inspired me. Of course, her melodies, voice and texts move my heart with every listen since. I started reading about her. I realized she has Israeli roots but is based in Paris, which also charmed me since I love Paris so much. Along the years I’ve been following Keren Ann’s ever growing career and was waiting for the right occasion to invite her to perform at FRAMED. With FRAMED FEST, the opportunity arose.
Roni Alter is more or less my age, grew up in Tel Aviv like me, and we both took vocal lessons with the same legendary teacher in Tel Aviv for many years. This is how I came to know her. At some point (about 20 years ago) we shared a stage (a long line up of singers performed that night) and I heard her singing live for the first time. I remember clearly how her voice sounded to me like a warm, deep and turbulent ocean. I was completely hooked.
The years went by and I heard that Roni moved to Paris, started singing also in French and English and published some really good albums (that I love and listen to a lot)
Roni had already performed twice at Framed, on different occasions. Both times were simple, true, honest and very touching. Here is a memory from 2018 at FRAMED with Roni.
While working on curating Duets for this very special 1st edition of FRAMED FEST, the idea of inviting Keren Ann together with Roni came to me like lightning. Imagine these two brave and beautiful women, singing together at the Wasserturm, letting the special acoustics of the space echo their stories and songs straight into the hearts of the audience. I can’t wait.
Lucky enough, both Roni and Keren Ann were happy with the idea and accepted our invitation. Just before arriving to Berlin from Paris, I asked them a few questions:
Yael: What’s your hope/wish/motive to come all the way from Paris to do this specific show?
Roni & Keren Ann:
We are both just super happy for the opportunity to play and sing together in this magical festival and in this inspiring space. We’re very much looking forward to singing our songs to the Berliner audience.
Yael: Together you both have a lot of repertoire! How will you choose the set list for this show? What is your compass when choosing which songs to sing?
Roni & Keren Ann:
The decision on which songs to perform was very intuitive. Each of us chose songs that she likes most from both our repertoires, and we will perform them in new arrangements. The line-up came to be a mix of our usual performances with some new surprises.
Yael: What inspires you in Roni/Keren-Ann?
Roni: Karen Ann’s amazing songs have accompanied me since I was a girl. Let’s face it, I’m a big fan of hers.. Just the idea of being with her on stage excites and inspires me a lot.
Keren-Ann: Roni, above all, is a close friend of mine that I admire and love. I love her creativity and I have always been attracted to her beautiful voice and harmonies. This opportunity is something we have wanted to do for a long time.
Yael: Can you please tell me about one piece of art that blew your mind lately? Could be old or new, any form of art – a poem, painting, movie, song, whatever…. What inspires you in Roni/Keren-Ann?
Keren Ann:
‘Giovanni’s Room’ a book by James Baldwin
Roni:
‘The zone of interest’ a film by Jonathan Glazer
Text by Yael Nachshon Levin
