SHIRA U'TFILA

In May 2008, Shira u'tfila was the only contestant to win two prizes at the finals of the International Jewish Music Festival in Amsterdam: the first for best world music ensemble, awarded by RASA, and the second, the audience choice award for best ensemble.  The two awards include a tour in the Netherlands and Belgium as well as concert engagement at the IJMF in 2009.

Distributed internationally via cdbaby.com, Ojos is a joint project of Shira U'tfila and Judeo-Spanish musicologist Drita Tutunovic, who learned the disc's various wedding-, birth- and lullaby-themed folk songs from her ancestors. The album is reminiscent of what Israeli post-Balkan jammers Boom Bam would sound like if they didn't have a punky edge. It is at once nostalgic and alive.

Ben Jacobson,

the Jerusalem Post 2007

"...It's refreshing to encounter a group who come mostly from the former Yugoslavia. Led by Stefan Sablic, A serbian, they have an eclectic and accomplished performing style, spiced up by an Indian percussionist. The mainly Balkan backing group add a wealth of Mediterranean instruments including darabuka, kaval, qanun and riq. Try the heady mix of sacred and profane in the first four tracks on this disc I dare you disagree."

Dennis Marks, Review of the CD "Sephardic Songs from the Balkans", for "Songlines".

"...exactly somewhere, in between the area filled with ferments of the chemistry of the 21th century, which also satisfies the wide range of the urban generation, you are suddenly struck by the ancient spirit of the Orient, whose deep melancholy and ecstasy finds its place in the vital harmony of the autonomous branch of eternal reality. Sensual, intoxicating and beautiful, but truly."

Zorica Kojić for the daily newspaper "Danas"