Rotem Geffen

Stockholm-based singer, pianist and composer Nelly Klayman-Cohen, using the moniker Rotem Geffen, conjures up a refined yet raw dream world with her music. She is keenly aware of the prismatic colorations of her voice and pushes her vocal timbres to distorted undulations. In lyrics that alternate between Hebrew, German and English, she works with fragments and memories. Her songwriting is coupled with her deft approach to timbre and orchestration, joined by some of Stockholm’s most innovative improvising musicians: Isak Hedtjärn (IH3, Viagra Boys, Fire! Orchestra); Milton Öhrström (Urban:Dentist, Honeywolf) Vilhelm Bromander (Joe Davolaz, Mambo Noir Trio, Fredrik Rasten); Josef Alin; Katt Hernandez (Vashti Bunyan, Fire! Orchestra); and Leo Svensson Sander (The Tiny, Namna). Her new album The Night is the Night follows her critically acclaimed debut album, You Guard the Key (Zeon Light 2021). The lyrics delve into memory, love, grief, and the poetics of the night. Together, the songs form a cohesive, multilingual dialogue. On the album, she has worked together with producer and keyboardist Alex Zethson (Vathres, Angles, Fire! Orchestra,Sven Wunder, Mariam The Believer) and co-producer Anton Toorell (INVADER ACE, Receptacles, The Ägg). The result is an album with varied and dynamic instrumentation, where the songs are imbued with a naïve shimmer that is balanced by darkness, depth, and subtle intensity – in both lyrics and music.