Harel Asaf didn’t wait for the war to end to make something. Between October 7, 2023 and early 2024, the Israeli artist recorded his entire debut EP ‘Eretz Muvtachat’ (Promised Land) under his alias DJ ZOAMBAR, mostly from inside a family shelter, between sirens, between fear and the stubborn need to create. The 6-track Hebrew EP is out now on all major streaming platforms.
What makes ‘Eretz Muvtachat’ remarkable is what it doesn’t do. The lyrics never mention battles or enemies. Instead, Asaf turns inward, writing about fathers and children, about what it means to stay, not politically but personally. Across 6 tracks, he moves from spiritual hip-hop to piano ballad to rock anthem, all in Hebrew, all produced with full electronic instrumentation, each song a different answer to the same question.
3 tracks anchor the EP’s emotional range. “Dima Acharona” (Last Tear) is a slow-burning Hebrew anthem built in E minor, its emotional weight arriving with restraint and precision. “Kir Shel Barzel” (Wall of Iron) shifts into D major at BPM 129, a full rock anthem that carries the EP’s most outward-facing energy. The electronic title track “Eretz Muvtachat” closes the set in C# major, propulsive and searching, the sound of someone working through something in real time with no guarantee of resolution.
This is what music made under impossible circumstances can sound like when the artist refuses to let the circumstances define the work.