Cd Isle...CDs by BC island recording artists

Susan Cogan's CD, Gypsy Hill, co-produced with Paul Brosseau, recorded at Nomad Music on Salt Spring Island, BC, features such talented performers as Jerome Jarvis, Kerry Galloway, Wyckham Porteous, and Bill Henderson. With an alchemy of folk, world-beat, Middle Eastern and contemporary sounds, Susan Cogan's original music transcends cultural differences to inspire the core of our shared humanity. An extraordinary woman of vast experience, Susan charms her listeners with her versatile vocal range and her ability to fuse elements of seemingly diverse styles into soulful, moving music.

We are so pleased to finally present "Shoshanim" (Roses) to you and hope you enjoy them. Most of "Shoshanim" was originally recorded in Montreal for our Israeli tour 1986. We added a new version of "The Second Bird" recorded in California 1998 for Fran's CD "Israel World Beat". The original version was composed and arranged for us by Misha Segal, and was recorded in Israel in 1972 with the Galei Zahal orchestra for The Festival of Poets in Song. That same year "Emesh" our first album was released on the Hed Arzi label. Some of the songs on Emesh like Matti Caspi's "Lo Deebarnu Od" have been covered by other Israeli singers over time.

"The Second Bird" flew on to become one of Israel's most beloved songs. It is still played weekly on Israeli radio and at state events such as Prime minister Rabin's funeral. After "Emesh" we recorded with the famous Israeli duo The Dudaim - (Erev Shel Shoshanim). The album and touring show "Rainbow in the Sky", was a collection of British Isle & North American songs translated into Hebrew.

The new CD of "Shoshanim" was released this summer in Toronto at Temple Sinai and at the Free Times Cafe. In concert we offer Hebrew and English songs we love drawing from "Shoshanim", "Emesh", our solo CDs, Susan's "Mayim" (North American release at Chutzpah 2001), Fran's "Israel World Beat, and more.

We have both been singing and recording together for 30 some years (with big breaks for our solo careers).

The Merciful Moon (B'chemlat Hal'vana) is an album of Hebrew songs of peace and celebration, "full of rhythms that lift your feet and your heart simultaneously"

These eleven contemporary pieces to sing, dance, move and be moved by, take us through an exciting emotional journey, of love and loss, joy and sorrow, and ultimately refresh our spirits.

'Yisrael Shema' is an ardent plea for peace, 'Not by Might' an exciting middle eastern mantra-dance and 'Gesher Tsar' connects us in ever-expanding harmony.

This recording is a not-to-be missed labour of love by two Canadian/Israeli songbirds who are a fusion of a female Simon and Garfunkle and Hebrew Indigo Girls.

"In a perfect weaving and blending of voices every song becomes the unexpected unfolding of an infinite number of counterpoint rhythms and harmony."Yisrael Shema" is powerful and evocative, in a sweeping melody that evokes and illuminates the entire past and present of the Jewish people and makes one long for peace...." -Cantor Linda Hirschhorn, 'Vocolot' director