Out October 30, 2026 · PKmusik
Roni’s debut as a leader: music built from melody, memory and story, drawing on Middle Eastern, North African and Jewish folk traditions and the language of jazz. It is an homage to his grandfather, who passed melodies down through the family. Produced by Shai Maestro.
Roni Eytan chromatic & microtonal harmonica · Shai Maestro piano · Nitzan Bar guitar · Barak Mori bass · Daniel Dor drums & percussion · guest Mayu Shviro cello
From Roni
We all have melodies within us, whether we hum them to ourselves, sing them to others, play them on stage, or just have them come and stay in our minds, only to leave and come back some other time.
Every single piece I composed for this album started from a melodic idea.
Some of my earliest and most valuable memories of making music are of singing together with my grandfather, who was a natural storyteller. He taught me many different melodies. Some were folk songs. Some were popular songs from when he was young. And some were melodies for prayers in Hebrew that had been passed down in our family.
Things leave us. A home, memories, words, people. Melodies often stay, kept somewhere else.
At the end he had almost no words left. We still sang. He never lost a melody, from beginning to end.
When I was a teenager I picked up the harmonica, an instrument that can be so close to the human voice. I was dreaming of playing far from home. Today when I play, I am trying to get back to that place. As if I am there, in my grandparents’ home in Jerusalem, singing a melody with my grandfather.
The piece Elegy for Saba is for him. — Roni Eytan
Tracks
- Winter Dance
- Hopeful
- Melody People
- Tears (A Mother’s Lament)
- A Modern Folk Tale
- Before It Begins
- Like a River
- Harmonica Song (For Dave)
- Elegy for Saba
- Melody People (Holding | Letting Go)
[Tracks 11 onward, if any — the Bandcamp player on the Shop page shows the full list; the press release also names Hayalda Hachi Yafa BaGan and Ne Me Quitte Pas.]