Erez Safar
Erez Safar (also known by his stage name Diwon, formerly dj handler) is the founder and director of Shemspeed (the largest, most diverse Jewish music website), Modular Moods (an independent record label), Hip Hop Sulha, and The Sephardic Music Festival. Diwon is a MusicAL mystic, multi-genre producer who travels the globe performing, producing and researching sounds. His styles range from Yemenite music blended with electro hip hop beats to cinematic psychadelia. Throughout Diwon's albums, remixes, singles and mixtapes, one could hear the influence of his family that migrated from Yemen to Ethiopia and finally settled in Israel. It has been rumoured that Diwon reaches a states of synesthesia throughout the writing and recording processes.
As a prolific producer, Diwon releases a wide range of albums a year. This past year brought, "The Beat Guide to Yiddish", the "Rarities & Remixes" series, the "I Heart Mixtape", and "Shir Ha Shirim" (The Song of Songs) an hour long meditation which mixed emotive Moroccan singing with hypnotic hip hop, rock and mizrahi sounds. At the same time he is finishing up his "Dreams in Static" album, a cinematic record with guitarist Dugans, as well as working on a revolutionary hip hop record, "This is Unity," with Y-Love. His live sets include a diverse mix of singers and live musicians, creating a lively blend of world music, hip hop, and jazz. Diwon's music, style, and presence get famous US clubs to resemble the craziest festivals abroad.
Erez Safar has performed with Lou Reed, Anthony Coleman, DJ Spooky, Matisyahu, Steinski, Idan Raichel, to name a few. London Radio's 104.4 FM called him, "one of New York's hottest Jewish musicians;" URB MAGAZINE listed him amongst their NEXT 1000 , The Village Voice stated that his work "as producer and DJ is among the most adventurous and banging on the new Jewish music scene;" the Jerusalem Post dubbed him, "Jewish music's multimedia mogul;" Forward listed him as one of the Top 50 "most influential Jews of 2007;" The Jewish Week listed him amongst their "36 under 36", and Heeb Magazine listed him in their "Heeb Hundred."