Nikmat HaTraktor blends rock and classical music at Meitarim Festival

Nikmat HaTraktor (The Tractor’s Revenge) has been around for a while. 

Founded in 1988, it is one of the longest-running rock acts in the country. 

With over three decades on the road and laying down tracks in recording studios, founder vocalist-guitarist Avi Belleli and his pals have accrued not only an abundance of professional experience; there is plenty of hard-earned street-level wisdom in their individual and collective continuums as well.

All of that can filter through into their creative storyline in all sorts of guises and, as the Meitarim Festival audiences at Tzavta in Tel Aviv will soon discover, it can segue into lush classically-leaning synergies too. 

The festival is due to run November 1-4, under the artistic direction of respected producer Ran Zarzevski, with a host of A-listers due to share the stage with accomplished string instrument players. 

The inclusion of the likes of Chava Alberstein, Maya Belsitzman, Matan Ephrat, Karni Postel, and Assaf Talmudi – all leading figures on the pop, rock, jazz, and folkie scene – augurs well for a quality four-day rollout.

One of the advantages of advancing along one’s corporeal timeline is the ability to differentiate the proverbial wheat from the chaff and offload stuff we really don’t need. 

As someone who has moved house umpteen times, I can confess to nonetheless accumulating tons of trash, mementos, papers, and whatnot that were probably shunted to one side and placed in the “that might come in handy one day” category. 

Less is more 

Artists, hopefully, go through a similar process of distillation in which they discover that less is frequently more.

I wondered whether that age-related evolution had impacted on Baleli as he and his fellow band members gear up for a date with a string quartet on the Tzavta stage. 

“The older you get, and you understand the concept and internalize the idea of hevel havalim (“vanity of vanities,” or “utterly meaningless”), you realize that is the antithesis of art,” says the 61-year-old bassist-vocalist, citing King Solomon’s sagacious words from the Book of Ecclesiastes. “That is the problem in art.”

Then again, in life in general and, in particular, in the realms of creativity, you have to explore. 

This often entails wading through the dross, offloading the elements that are clearly superfluous to the creative odyssey. 

However, Baleli believes that anything can be grist for the artistic mill. “An artist must not think like that,” he states. “Artists are obliged to retain a degree of infantility, on a high level. Otherwise, you have nothing to do in the world of art.” 

That is an intriguing and illuminating take on the craft although, other than the mad and merry days of prog rock in the early 1970s – when the likes of Renaissance, Genesis, Emerson, Lake and Palmer (aka ELP), King Crimson, and Jethro Tull were mining rich classical seams – rock music has typically been associated with heavily amplified sounds and high-octane, often abrasive delivery. Nikmat Hatraktor’s gig at the festival (November 2, 9 p.m.), which goes by the name of Mitbach Acousti (Acoustic Kitchen), will be anything but loud and will lean more in the direction of emotive dulcet tones.

A band that made a splash 

The Israeli band made quite a splash with its self-titled debut release which came out in 1990, with Vehakol Rak Mischak Shel Demaot (It’s All Just A Game of Tears) doing well on the singles Billboard. 

However, that number does not feature in the Meitarim concert playlist, which includes Hee (She) and Dabree Elai (Talk To Me), off the band’s third record, Zechut Hatza’aka (The Right to Scream), which came out in 1992, and Mitnateket from album number five, Mitbach Acousti, which saw the light of day in 1996.

The latter is a pivotal case in point that eventually spawned the Tzavta show, which bears the same moniker. 

Mitbach Acousti was recorded live, in a relatively diminutive setting, at a club, where the challenging spatial and sonic logistics led to a decision to opt for an unplugged approach. 

Over the past couple of years or so, the group has participated in a handful of run-outs with the Israel Contemporary String Quartet, whose declared credo leads them into the more here-and-now areas of classical pursuit. 

That suits Baleli et al down to the ground.

The sexagenarian frontman is all for casting a practiced eye – and ear – on material of substance and not shooting off into frenetic, ego-strutting domains. 

Still, he is wary of getting old, rather than older and wiser. “You can attain a level of maturity as a person, but after that, you can fall into a state of being overripe,” he chuckles. “It’s the same in all areas of life.”

And it is, he posits, even more important in the various disciplines of art. He is all for keeping on his toes.

“That was fundamental to the line we always took with Nikmat Hatraktor. The band always made sure things did not ripen too much. Nikmat Hatraktor always preserved something that wasn’t too round. Round, to me, is ripe. Ripe, to me, sounds expected.”

That figures. If you find yourself with the “complete” outcome of your labors, you may be tempted to try to replicate it further down your professional road.

That is anathema to the creative process, which, by definition, involves venturing into uncharted waters and leaps of faith. “I endeavor to put myself in a place of experimentation and exploration and steering clear of things that are round and ripe.”

That is not just the 61-year-old seasoned musician talking. Baleli feels the band has doggedly stuck to its principles since the off, all of 36 years ago. 

“When I listen to the group’s early albums, you can hear and see that. We were never a group that looked to make hit numbers. 

Take, for example, Mitnateket, which came off a live album.” Baleli believes that approach has stood the test of time. “All those songs are great and still sound cool,” he states, albeit with more than a modicum of undisguised satisfaction but without a hint of hubris.

PERHAPS NIKMAT HATRAKTOR’S foray into the classical sphere is not that surprising, particularly when you learn that, as a budding teenage musician, Baleli’s ears and heart were well and truly snared by the score for Stravinsky’s Petrushka ballet work. 

“We listened to all sorts of records,” he recalls. The youngster was keeping his musical options open. “I fell in love with Stravinsky’s crazy choirs,” he laughs. “That reminded us of, say, Satyricon [by feted Italian film director Federico Fellini]. 

I encountered that world of fantasy – madly surrealistic and psychedelia. I really dug that back then.”

Over the years, the band members have written and performed material for dance and theater projects and filmic soundtracks. That necessarily extends the sonic and stylistic parameters. 

“We have always looked for different mediums – the stage, the screen, different people, and that sort of thing. Interactions have always been important to us.”

That, in a word or two, is possibly the secret to this country’s sumptuous spread of artistic offerings across all disciplines and styles. 

This inherently cultural melting pot has always delivered the creative goods and continues to do so regardless – or possibly despite – all the existential challenges that sadly seem to be part and parcel of life here. 

“That keeps us hungry and always on the prowl for new frontiers to test,” Baleli adds.

For tickets and more information: https://www.tzavta.co.il/event/3819