Zohar is an album by the Mystic Fugu Orchestra (John Zorn (as Rav Tzizit) and Yamataka Eye (as Rav Yechida) who perform a range of music inspired by historical recordings of ancient Judaica.[1] To simulate the "antiquity" of these recordings, a heavy layer of surface noise was overlaid on the music to represent the playing quality of a 78 rpm gramophone record.
Reception
The Allmusic review by Joslyn Layne awarded the album 1.5 stars stating "Just under half an hour's worth of old record spin-and-crackle sounds in the foreground, with a faint background of John Zorn adding small amounts of harmonium and Yamantaka Eye voicing occasional hums and tones. Most of what you hear, however, is record surface static and the revolutions of the vinyl. Zohar could only be of use to completists, or as a layer for mixing".[2]
