The Internet has come of age!

I could marry the Internet – I have been searching for years for an obscure Israeli folk band called The High Windows (Trio) for years and years and the Internet has Finally Delivered.

The band’s members (in particular Arik Einstein ) were all well known in their native land, but they all went on to other things after just one album. I used to put their name into Google and all I would get would be pages in Hebrew that I couldn’t read, but now they have a Wikipedia entry and I could download the MP3s from Amazon if I were in the US.

I only know of them because their eponymous album formed the soundtrack of one of my all time favourite films – Shirat Ha’Sirena (English title was Talila – Song of the Siren) by Israeli director Eyton Fox (such a cool name). It’s set in the Gulf War but it stays away from that sort of politics. It has been described as an Isreali Bridget Jones but coming out in 1994, it predates Bridget by a year. In any case it was based on a novel of the same name by Irit Linur and is one of the most wonderfully romantic films ever produced. High praise, but true. It is much better than Bridget Jones, I think anyway and I did like it, and the main star, Dalit Kahan (as Talila Katz) is utterly charming.

Yalda k’tana (Little Girl) is truly one of the most beautiful songs ever written.

Fortunately, I discovered Israeli Music will send me a new edition of the album that appears to have more songs on it for US$21 (including postage to Australia)! YAY!