Meet The Artist: Ori Lichtik

Ori Lichtik is a musician and drummer and began his career in the 1990s as a DJ and producer at techno parties and raves in Tel Aviv. He has been a member of Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar’s L-E-V Dance Company since 2006. There he does not just compose soundtracks, but performs live with the company and constructs, plays and shapes the music directly on stage. He moves in a variety of musical worlds with the most diverse styles and textures – from industrial and African tribal recordings to hip-hop and baroque music. In addition to his work with L-E-V, Ori Lichtik has created works for dance companies and opera houses all over the world. He has been working with Yaron Lifschitz and Circa for years and composed the music for our current production Wolf.

Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your practice.

I am a musician, my base background is mostly as a techno DJ and a drummer, that is the base of everything I do. The DJ part is that I like transitions, I like beats, I like groove, I like hypnotism and repetitism. And continuity is very important. When I have two ideas or pieces of music and work on a transition in order to create continuity between the two, then often the transition itself suddenly becomes this new, different piece of music that is much cooler, much more interesting and sometimes makes the first two unnecessary. In the past 15 to 20 years I mostly did music for contemporary dance for Sharon Eyal. But I still DJ, I play drums I have a band called AVAQ, of which we are actually playing a track in Wolf right now.

Wolf is your third collaboration with Circa, after Peepshow and Humans 2.0. What is it like to work with a circus ensemble?

I would say this is the second and a half – Peepshow played music of mine but we didn’t create it together – I think around a third of the piece was original music created by me, but then Humans 2.0 was a full and specific collaboration.

It’s interesting and different to work with a circus ensemble. I always tell Yaron and the acrobats what I learned from my wife. She danced for a long time and she always used to say that gravity is a bitch. Working with Circa and the acrobats, I told her you don’t know anything about that! For me what makes it very challenging but also very interesting is the gravity part, it’s just this flow that you have no control over. I mean, the acrobats do to some extend and that’s amazing. But to me, control is always limited, because there is so much gravity in the choreographies like jumps and falls. In music and dance, the groove and flow and rhythm dictate everything. I think in circus the movements are much more gravity-based. I find it pretty challenging, but also kind of cool to figure out how and where the groove can still work. And I think this is what makes this collaboration unique.

Can you tell us about an experience that made you want to become a musician?

I realized lately that I rarely made an intended work choice. In many of my journeys, stuff simply happened. Everybody loves music and I feel it now in the studio with Yaron that I don’t know more about music than anyone else. Because music is about emotion and no one knows more about emotions than anyone else does. Sometimes I feel like I know less than others do.

So I just liked music and I was starting to fool around with it when I was 12. I took double tape cassettes and I was copying and pasting from hip-hop songs, and movies and whatever I could get my hands on. I didn’t think about becoming a musician, I was just doing my thing and then later on with going to clubs and starting to play techno and acid parties I was just enjoying myself. Of course, in some moments I imagined a DJ career, but in the end, it just happened. It was the same with this connection with Sharon Eyal. We knew each other and it was just like maybe you want to come by the studio, maybe you have some ideas – everything evolved like this, it was never a choice.

What can you tell us about the music of Wolf?

It’s dark. I have this tendency of going dark in music. And I remember the first time I had a Zoom with Yaron, I told him I love the straightforward one word – Wolf. It’s quite strong, I like it. We talked and I told him you know I like wolves, I appreciate them a lot, they have many sides. But when you think about the immediate connotation it is never playful – it is just dark, it is lonely, it is wild. So I have this tendency of going dark, because I love it and I love subtext. I love things that are not super clear. But I know there is always a place for playfulness and awkwardness that can balance the darkness.

You were in the rehearsal room in Australia and are now in the middle of previews in Berlin. Please tell us a little bit about your work process and what it’s like in the rehearsal room!

Well I am mostly sitting in the studio, I am observing what is going on, I am trying to get inspiration from the composition, the movements, some of the words I hear Yaron tell the acrobats or I hear the acrobats speaking among themselves. I want to support them with my music, that is always what I want to do, also in dance pieces. And then it’s great if the music comes out, but the music in the rehearsal room is mostly to support the acrobats, and to create the vibrations of the piece.

Basically, I’m trying to create a zone. For me, in art, especially stage art, you need to create a zone – a world, a universe – where you can create freely and invite people in. I think any good piece of art takes you to a place that you haven’t expected, something new or exciting. And as an artist, I want to help take people to such a place. So I guess that is what we are all doing in the rehearsal room and I am trying to find my way to give support.