PRESS QUOTES: OPIUM MOON by Opium Moon
(Released July 2018)
"It's a rare pleasure to find music that gives me pause, slows me down from the daily deluge and gives me a moment to think. That's exactly what happened when I first heard "Caravan" from Opium Moon's self-titled, debut album. This music with violin, santur (Persian hammered dulcimer,) ancient percussion and bass is spacious and timeless." - Bob Boilen, NPR (National Public Radio, USA) https://www.npr.org/2018/07/11/627653228/opium-moon-a-band-of-immigrants-reflects-on-the-global-refugee-crisis
"Descriptors like enchanting, elegant and hypnotic just don’t seem to do justice to Be Why Music’s recent self-titled release of Opium Moon. It is indeed enchanting, elegant and hypnotic, but it’s more. Surely, this is the music drunk bees must hear lolling inside a flower, captives to the warm summer sun and soothing breeze surrounded and infused by drugging fragrance. Finding your inner drunk bee is no further than a listen to this extraordinary CD. - World Music Central Worldmusiccentral.org/2018/07/20/Captivating-And-Stylish-Opium-Moon/
"Enchanting music that sounds contemporary but has ancient roots...powerful...aches with feeling."
- Tom Schnabel, KCRW Rhythm Planet Http://Blogs.kcrw.com/Music/2018/08/August-Music-Mix/
"Opium Moon‘s debut album is the soundtrack to an exotic, hazy, languorous dream, a sensual/spiritual trip into the mystic." - Steve Hochman, KPCC/Southern California Public Radio
Https://Makeminebaconwrapped.Com/2018/07/10/Celestial-To-Subterranean-New-Music-From-Opium-Moon-Jupiter-Okwess-And-Hana-Vu/
"Opium Moon produces a sound that’s biblical yet carnal...creating a sound like something born from the underlying forces of sensuality." - Malibu Arts Journal Https://Worldmusiccentral.Org/2018/07/20/Captivating-And-Stylish-Opium-Moon/
It’s been quite some time since a thoroughly enticing, alluring and totally engaging album has come my way. Throw yourself into the spirit of Opium Moon and you’ll be lifted by spirit in every
imaginable way! - Lloyd Barde, Common Ground magazine/San Francisco
"Opium Moon’s debut album is a sublime and sensual brew of strings, percussion and bass that transports the listener to a musically soulful Shangri-La.” – Victoria Looseleaf, ArtNowLA
"Fluid and hypnotic..." - Santa Monica Argonaut Https://Argonautnews.com/A-Call-For-Deep-Listening/
Hamid Saeidi, Lili Haydn, Itai Disraeli & M.B. Gordy
3x Top Ten on Two Charts
Praise for OPIUM MOON:
"Descriptors like enchanting, elegant and hypnotic just don’t seem to do justice" - World Music Central
"Opium Moon‘s debut album is the soundtrack to an exotic, hazy, languorous dream, a sensual/spiritual trip into the mystic."
"Descriptors like enchanting, elegant and hypnotic just don’t seem to do justice to Be Why Music’s recent self-titled release of Opium Moon. It is indeed enchanting, elegant and hypnotic, but it’s more. Surely, this is the music drunk bees must hear lolling inside a flower, captives to the warm summer sun and soothing breeze surrounded and infused by drugging fragrance. Finding your inner drunk bee is no further than a listen to this extraordinary CD." - World Music Central
"It’s been quite some time since a thoroughly enticing, alluring and totally engaging album has come my way. Throw yourself into the spirit of Opium Moom and you’ll be lifted by spirit in every imaginable way!" - Lloyd Barde, Common Ground
Opium Moon are voting members and would love to hear your music as well. Please email anything you would like to share with us to lili@lilihaydn.com
TRACK LIST
2. Drunk With The Great Starry Void
3. How Can I Pray When The Beloved Is All I See
4. When I See You Naked I Smell The Earth
5. Caravan
Press Contact:
Mark Gorney
Other Inquires:
Cheryl McEnaney
Introducing the debut of OPIUM MOON, violinist-composer-singer Lili Haydn’s passionate new collaboration with gifted bassist Itai Disraeli, santoor maestro Hamid Saeidi, and ubiquitous percussionist M.B. Gordy.
As the world rips itself apart, Opium Moon embraces us all. Hailing from Iran, Israel, Canada and the U.S., this band of immigrants is bringing peace through harmony. The world needs this music right now.
• Premiered on NPR All Songs Considered on day of release
• Charted 3x on two Billboard charts
• Best Music of 2018 list – Lloyd Barde, Common Ground/San Francisco • Best Albums of 2018 list – Transglobal Music Chart/Europe
Lili Haydn was born in Toronto, Ontario (she holds dual Canadian/U.S. citizenship) and moved with her mother, the groundbreaking comedienne Lotus Weinstock, to Los Angeles as a child. An NPR favorite (“Heifetz meets Hendrix”), she has five solo albums to her credit, has scored 15 feature films and documentaries, and is also known for her collaborations both in the studio and on tour.
She has played with, sung with, and opened for everyone from Herbie Hancock, Sting, Roger Waters, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, and Josh Groban to the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, George Clinton’s P-Funk Allstars, Hans Zimmer, and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. She has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Vienna Opera House, and the Hollywood Bowl, and her work has been featured in more than 50 films.
Rolling Stone called her music “fiery and virtuosic” – and George Clinton dubbed her “the Jimi Hendrix of the violin.” A dedicated humanitarian and social activist with a degree in political science from Brown University, Lili has presented three TED talks and performs regularly at benefits for such organizations as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and The Feminist Majority.
Tehran native Hamid Saeidi studied santoor in the Radiff system of Persian classical music with Iran’s famous teacher Madjid Kiani, then went on to attend The Iranian Academy of the Arts, studying composition under the music masters Farhad Fakhredini and Vartan Sahakian.
Hamid has been acclaimed for his performances in Iran, Greece, Ireland, Germany, Canada, Turkey, Malaysia and the U.S. He has scored over 30 films, TV programs, dance and theatrical presentations, receiving awards at the Beirut Film Festival in 2002, the Iran TV festival in 2002, 2004 and 2007, and at Iran’s Society of Critics of Theatre in 2005. In recognition of his work, The Farhang Foundation in Los Angeles has twice commissioned his original multimedia compositions for their annual celebratory Nowruz events.
Itai Disraeli, now based in Los Angeles, was raised in one of Israel’s oldest kibbutz communities, the Mishmar-Ha’Emeq commune in the valley of Armageddon near Nazareth. Co-founded by his grandfather in the 1920s, it was among the non-religious, utopian social experiments in 20th century Palestine that focused its youthful members on a just, peaceful life of
sharing, land cultivation, and tolerance. The world of Itai’s youth had no money, no locked doors, no crime. But he left for the U.S. with his young child when Iraqi bombs rained down, “because you can’t put a gas mask on a baby.” An acclaimed, innovative bassist and composer, he co-founded the genre-bending band Maetar, has played with Jackson Browne, Larry Coryell, and Nishat Khan, among others, and founded the music program at Los Angeles’ acclaimed Wildwood School. His music has been licensed for TV and film, and he is active with humanitarian and peace organizations, believing that music has the power to heal and connect.
Percussionist M.B. Gordy, in whose hands ancient percussion instruments take on a seductive, almost mystical power, has played with such diverse artists as Beck, Frank Zappa, Michael Buble, Green Day, The Doobie Brothers, Josh Groban, Bill Withers, Guns and Roses, Neil Diamond, My Chemical Romance, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and
The National Symphony. With an M.A. from California Institute of the Arts and intensive study of ethnic percussion, he has worked with producers Peter Asher, Don Was, and Rob Cavallo, to name a few. His groove has been heard in over 300 top box office films, including the Harry Potter series, Frozen, and the X-Men series, and he has played drums for numerous television shows -- Mad Men, The Mentalist, The Tonight Show, Battlestar Galactica, Good Morning America, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and many more.
M.B. has also performed in theatrical productions of The Lion King, The Color Purple, West Side Story, Camelot, and Bring It On.
The four musicians of Opium Moon are a global intersection of powerhouse talent who work together with spontaneity and intuition, forging an exotic, richly articulated sonic journey that conjures ancestral pasts but uplifts and inspires with contemporary rhythms and rhapsodic melodies, masterfully performed.
NPR's Bob Boilen said: "It's a rare pleasure to find music that gives me pause, slows me down from the daily deluge and gives me a moment to think. That's exactly what happened when I first heard "Caravan" from Opium Moon's self-titled, debut album. This music with violin, santur (a hammered dulcimer,) ancient percussion and bass is spacious and timeless."
Stay tuned; Opium Moon is on the rise…