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Sandcatchers is a Middle Eastern-Americana mashup that grew out of a weekly residency at Cheryl’s Global Soul restaurant in Brooklyn. Their debut LP, What We Found Along the Way, came out on Chant Records on November 1, 2017.
The quartet – experimental guitarist, oud player and composer Yoshie Fruchter (John Zorn’s Tzadik records), Michael Bates, an accomplished jazz bassist with a punk rock background, Myk Freedman, a pioneer of modern lap steel music, and Israeli drummer/percussionist Shai Wetzer – explores the unprecedented combination of the oud, an instrument with centuries of history beginning in pre-Islamic Persia and Turkey, and the lap steel, a more recent invention with roots in the American South. Together with guest cellist Erik Friedlander, these musicians bring their varying backgrounds, specialties, and improvisational voices together to create a vibrant new sound.
The name Sandcatchers – “catching sand” - references something of an impossibility. “I like the idea that this band is always searching, never satisfied,” says Fruchter, who studies oud with virtuoso Ara Dinkjian. “Each member of the band is deeply inspired by history and tradition of their chosen instrument but even more driven to turn that inspiration into music that is new and fresh.” Fruchter’s religious Jewish background also plays a part in the sound and personality of the band. “I feel like my music is aptly representative of a culture known for wandering. For every moment of beauty we achieve, there’s another one waiting around the corner to try to and chase down.”
YOSHIE FRUCHTER - OUD, GUITAR
MYK FREEDMAN - LAP STEEL
ERIK FRIEDLANDER - CELLO
MICHAEL BATES - BASS
YONADAV HALEVY - DRUMS
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