Noted singer-songwriter Lucky Ali is back from hiatus with a collaborative album titled ‘Lemalla’ with Jewish-Israeli rock musician Eliezer Botzer. The first song of the EliAli Project titled ‘On My Way’ was released earlier this week in Delhi. The unique collaboration between the two singers happened by chance when they found each other in 2017. “Our collaboration was more like a discovery. They came with their musicians and then our musicians were there and so there was a new discovery in that. The challenge was to incorporate that into a small structure. We had the idea about the songs but the rest was all about improvisation. For example, Eliezer would sing a part in Hebrew and he would leave my expression to me. Then I would sing what I felt when I was hearing that piece of music. Often I would get a feeling as if I was moving somewhere. And then I would question who I am in this journey. The answer is that I am basically a stranger who is travelling though this whole thing that’s called the world,” reveals Ali.
For Botzer, the collaboration with Ali is all about exploration. “The strongest connect between the two of us is our deep love for India. Our collaboration is a result of three years of musical journey that we have had together. During this time we had numerous jamming sessions, both here in India as well as in Tel Aviv. I consider myself really fortunate to have developed a strong bond of friendship with Lucky through our collaborative work. The fact that we sang and wrote together allowed us to glide through the different rooms of life together. We got to explore different subjects during our collaboration. As humans, it doesn’t matter what culture or land that we come from as there is so much that needs to be discovered together,” opines Botzer who likes to describe himself as “a troubadour who lives what he writes and writes what he lives”.
Ali’s songs are often about beautiful journeys. But for Ali, the journeys are not physical in nature. “Everybody asks me what my journey is. I feel all my songs are about journeys. And those journeys are how I feel from within. My journey could be anything. It doesn’t necessarily have to be on the road or going to a place. It could just be two people talking and that’s a journey in itself. Say you are coming from far away with so much history and then I am also telling you so many things about this world. So you go on those journeys and that becomes a song as music and words begin to take shape,” explains Ali whose debut album ‘Sunoh’ was released back in 1996. The album went on to win him many accolades and established Ali as one of the popular names on the Indian pop scene.
“India is blessed with so many presents such as its rich musical tradition. Even though I have been coming to India for the last 15 years, my collaboration with Lucky has opened a whole new window for me to look at this beautiful country. It has become my second home now. In fact, the song ‘On My Way’ is dedicated to the idea of home. It’s first of the eight songs from the album. The home is the place of the heart and any place we could connect with our heart, it gives us the feeling of home. Also, the name ‘Lemalla’ in Hebrew means the higher thought that comes from inside. It’s not higher compared to someone else. It’s basically about going deeper within oneself and rising higher from inside,” explains Botzer.
The cross-cultural collaboration between Ali and Botzer transcends the boundaries of language through the power of music. “India is everywhere. People from other parts of the world have been coming here for thousands of years. Even we have been travelling. But when the music comes that’s what you are interested in. What you are saying something musically, it should make sense to you. You see when it comes to music it’s not the language, it’s the sound, the vibrations, and the energy that allow us to communicate with each other. If the communication is fair to my heart, I would reciprocate in the same way. Same way, if I communicate something and it tugs at your heart then you will communicate it back to me,” sums up Ali.
