Ben Shalev, "Haaretz".

August 2004.

The guitarist, Hagai Rehavia, is so far into the festival, one of its surprises. Following his studies at the Rimon School, when his friends went on to studies in the U.S., Rehavia chose to go to Brazil and study there with people he call "guitar masters". The knowledge he acquired there, which includes intimate knowledge of the Brazilian music with all its shades and colors, is clearly apparent in his beautiful and modest music.

Rehavia explained that his piece "Coconut", while composed in Rio, is based on sounds from Northern Brazil. And "Prelude Creole" is a classic piece from Venezuela into which Rehavia and his partner Joca Perpignan inserted some Afro-Brazilian Groove.

Perpignan and Rehavia, who concentrated on creative playing of chords and avoided solo virtuoso moves, and rightly so, were complemented beautifully by the flautist Ilan Salem and the bassist Yorai Oron.

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