A Journey in Words: A Year of Change, Learning, and Music

Hello everyone, it's great to be writing here again. A year has passed since my last blog post. This past year, I was busy becoming a better educator and musician. It was a year of changes, learning, and music, and not much time for creation.

The live performance at Levontin 7 with a full band in August 2024 was a very interesting experience for me, the last major musical project I've had the chance to produce. I discovered the effort it takes to maintain a band of talented musicians and the effort involved in producing an event of that scale. It was a special experience, I got the chance to meet new musician friends. Luckily, I filmed and recorded the performance (you can listen here and watch here), so it will be remembered, and who knows, maybe the show will return in the future. The performance accompanied the release of the album "Matchil Me'Efes," and yes, there was truly a feeling of a new beginning, and it still stays with me.

This isn't my first album, and I am on my way to releasing a new album in 2025, which I'll tell you about later in this post.

I want to share that over the past two years, I've put most of my effort and attention into building a slightly more stable life for myself. I decided to study musical education at the Lewinsky-Wingate Academic Center. This was a good decision for me personally. The studies awakened parts of my brain that had been dormant since my engineering studies at the Technion. Modes of thinking and research, patience, writing, and planning. This is my first formal musical education, and all the knowledge I've accumulated over the years from playing, composing, recording, and producing was reorganized in my mind. Many gaps and missing pieces of knowledge were filled. Ear training classes were a springboard for me to a whole new level of musicality and sharpened my skills as a musician, along with well-organized and well-reasoned theoretical knowledge. Thank you so much, Tzilla. I finished my teaching certificate studies in musical education, and I feel like I came out on top.

At the same time, I started a career as a teacher at the Ministry of Education, and I'm very happy with this day job as a music teacher in elementary schools. I enjoy singing songs from the Israeli canon and teaching classical pieces. We also improvise and play a bit, invent movements, dance and draw. Kids are very interesting and smart people - also funny and inspiring.

Besides my day job, I also founded the jazz trio "Walla Yes Trio" with friends I met during my studies, Itamar Wagner on saxophone and Yuval Zrihen on guitar, with me on double bass. We recorded two albums, and you can find us on Spotify, etc. Alon and I have returned to performing as "Pil Ba'Sira." We released a new song called "Mehapes," and there's a good chance we'll record a new album this year.

I make a great effort to stay healthy. In recent months, I have been consistent with yoga, running, taking long walks with Lola, and getting into a freezing ice bath once a week. I also try to avoid smoking of any kind, reduce my alcohol intake, and moderate the weekly servings of hummus I comfort myself with. I hope to see the change manifest outwardly soon. I can report that my desire to create and play has recently grown, and the craving for heavy, junk food has decreased.

When I went on summer vacation, after a year-long internship at the Ministry of Education and intense studies four days a week that also included hands-on experience at "Thelma Yellin" High School (where I got to mentor talented and brilliant students in the production and creation major), I realized I needed a period to restore my body, mind, and creativity.

I opened old projects from the period of live broadcasts that were cut short with the outbreak of the war and started to gather material from there for a new album. Additionally, I opened several projects I created during the year on Ableton Move (which I'll expand on in a separate post) and finished song productions. One thing led to another, and it seems an album is starting to take shape.

An album is a driving force in my life as an artist and as a person. It gives me a reason to go out into the world, present my wares, and try to get attention and recognition (not simple; as I get older, it becomes more challenging), to create new connections, videos, art, and to go out and perform. On one hand, I will continue to make music and share it, even if I'm my only listener. On the other hand, the desire to be heard and loved is great, and whenever new music comes out, I get very excited and hope the music reaches ears and hearts, provides inspiration, and creates new opportunities.

I'm even writing this blog post now following the release of the first single from the album. The song's name is "Masa Be'Milim," (A Journey in Words) and the truth is, I wanted to release it on the previous album, "Matchil Me'efes," (beginning from zero) and even call it by that name. In the end, its production was delayed and happened with the help of Ableton Move.

"Masa Be'Milim" - Written, composed, Produced and Directed By Igor (Igal Marcus)

I released the single with great enthusiasm, with a wonderful portrait photo by Tlashwork Senveto and a new Igor logo designed by the brilliant Daniel Cherkes, peeking out from behind on the wall. My enthusiasm was huge; finally, a song is out after so long. My surroundings' enthusiasm was less so, and I was a bit disappointed because I think the song "A Journey in Words" sounds the best I've ever made, both in my singing, the mix, and the production. The story in the song is my personal journey in the world of music. I share my musical aspirations, passions, fears, and how I became who I am today thanks to the journey in music. I feel that the music also speaks to this. Of course, I only put a small part of my big life story as an artist into the song, and yet I felt that I was sharing something interesting and significant, with a sweet musical wrapper.

Igor "masa Be'Milim", Photograph By Tlashworck Senvetu, Logo By Daniel Cherkes

It didn't reach many ears. Many people heard the song on social media, but few took the time to listen to the song in its entirety and understand what it's about. And that's understandable, because there are more interesting things in the world: there's a cursed war, there are reality shows, girls in bikinis, more famous musicians, and there's life itself—the lives of each and every one of you, which are no less interesting than mine, even if no songs have been written about them.

In any case, I would be happy for you to go and listen, and I would be even happier if you would comment on what you think about the song. :)

I'm sitting here in my study, one day before the start of the new school year, and I've taken on new and interesting musical projects with my students. I'm very excited to embark on this journey, and I'm happy to have the opportunity and ability to contribute through my musical skills and "people skills." I am happy to teach the younger generation about music and beyond. I also decided to continue on to a master's degree, which if you had told the hippie Igor who became a full time musician a decade ago, he would have laughed. I promise I will be a teacher who thinks outside the box, is attentive, accepting, and caring for my students.

This year, I have taken it upon myself to empower my artistic and personal life for the better. I believe that very soon, I will be able to return to broadcasting a live music program on social networks, and even make the program better than before. Additionally, I will focus on creation, art, and musical practice as a producer and as a performing singer (in the past, it was difficult for me to acknowledge being a singer; now I'm taking it all the way). I want to be more present on social media and the internet and write a new blog post every two weeks.

I want to go out and perform at least every week with original and interesting music, and also continue to earn a living playing jazz and singing the Israeli repertoire for a quality audience. This year, I will fulfill my dream of creating an electronic show based on Igor's original music, with improvisation and live beat-making, within a rhythmic, multi-sensory, breathtaking experience.

I want to release a new clothing design every month, mostly T-shirts, depending on the season. The clothes that come from the store on this website are very high quality, and I wear shirts I printed three years ago that have maintained their shape and style in a truly surprising way.

I want to tell you that I'm still looking for an artist to work with this year on original music. I really love being a producer, and I'm looking for people with whom I have the right click for it to happen. It would make me very happy to give from my knowledge and experience in recordings, performances, rehearsals, creation, writing, and composing in a friendly and homey, down-to-earth atmosphere (with world-class results).

Thank you, everyone, for staying to read the blog. I would be happy if you leave a comment here, and even happier to hear what kind of posts you would like to read here on the blog and what T-shirt or hat designs you would like me to create.

I would love to stay in touch on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or even TikTok. I post there about shows and new music. You can also subscribe to the site here at the bottom of the page, and new blog posts will be sent to you. :)