The multidisciplinary artist’s first album, ‘Reasons to be Fearful,’ wraps Israeli grief, kibbutz memory and the trauma of Be’eri in melancholic English-language electro-pop: ‘I needed English as a distancing device, to talk about it in a non-nationalized language’Dudu Metsuyanim, Calcalist|Yoav Brill’s moving debut album sounds, at first, like it came from somewhere far away. It is a collection of melodic pop songs wrapped in danceable electronic production, all sung in English, with echoes of British acts such as Pet Shop Boys and Hot Chip. But Israel’s war runs through it from beginning to end, starting with the opening track, “Be’eri,” named after the kibbutz where Brill was born and raised.“So many feelings that cannot be spelled, and there is no one left to blame,” he writes in the song. “The sadness stays as it was. It will hit you in the head without warning.”GalleryYoav Brill (Photo: Yair Meyuhas)Brill, 44, is a multidisciplinary artist. He is an animator who has directed several short animated films and makes a living through design, video editing and animation for films, including “The Woman in White” and “Esther,” both of which won awards at the last Docaviv festival. He directed the 2021 documentary “Made Abroad,” about foreign volunteers in kibbutzim; played keyboards in The Secret Sea, led by Amit Erez; and has worked as a DJ and remixer for indie artists including Noa Babayof and J.Views.On his debut album, “Reasons to be Fearful,” Brill wrote and produced all the songs, but entrusted most of the singing to others, including Rotem Bar Or, Noa Babayof and Roy Rieck. He sings only one track himself.The album cover shows an abandoned organ against the backdrop of his kibbutz. “The neighborhood in the photograph was burned in the war, a year after the cover was already ready,” Brill says.In some ways, that is also the story of the album. Most of it was written before October 7, but because of what happened, it is now heard through the colors of the war.“There is something both nice and annoying about it,” Brill says. “You write a text about an experience at a concert or about your friends, but because you come from Be’eri and the year is 2026, it is automatically read as the suffering, distress or loneliness of the war.”The album cover Still, placing Be’eri on the cover and opening the album with a song named after the kibbutz was clearly a statement.