California Space Craft

Description

Yuvi Havkin aka Rejoicer returns with an exceptional collaborative album, California
Space Craft. On this aptly titled record, he joins forces with seasoned LA bass
polymath Sam Wilkes — known for his inspired studio work with Sam Gendel and his
dynamic live performances alongside Louis Cole and KNOWER — and drummer Tamir
Barzilay, completing the LA-connected trifecta alongside a select handful of key
featured guests.
The idea for California Space Craft was born out of a series of inspired live sessions in
Los Angeles between 2019 and 2022, notably at Listen to Music Outside in the
Daylight Under a Tree, where the trio’s natural chemistry first began to bloom.
The resulting recordings encompass a wide variety of inspired sound stylings, as one
would expect from any of these accomplished artists on their own; however, the sum
is truly greater than the parts here, with the fluidity of their freeform improvisations
over a dedicated three-day recording session feeling remarkably focused as a
cohesive whole.
Opening track “Traveling Light” sets the LP’s tone with equal parts Sly & Robbie-style,
space echo– drenched rhythms and the cozy kosmische, guitar-led feel of early-
2000s genre-fluid explorers like Tortoise. As we continue on to “Ritual in G#,” we are
reminded that this is indeed a unique and timeless sonic space the trio has created,
as Havkin’s crisp Rhodes chords anchor an ever-evolving psychedelic sound bed.
The soaring trumpet of Avishai Cohen adorns the Afrobeat-indebted “Lion Water,”
with Barzilay laying down a proper Allen-esque groove, while “Further (with you),”
featuring Nitai Hershkovits on keys, offers a defining look at the titular concept of the
album — with pure Cali feels coalescing effortlessly into sci- fi narrative modes and a
proper dose of Rejoicer futurism. Elsewhere, “Her Hair in the Air” shines with fresh
polyrhythmic intention, illustrating the balanced bond between the three
collaborators at their conversational peak, and the brisk synth strokes of “Early
Porpoises,” alongside LP closer “Oceanic Friends” — again ideally named — double
as a grand, in-stereo ride into the blissful Pacific sunset horizon.
California Space Craft embodies the power of open, collective intention and musical
kinship, offering memorable, uplifting moments and an aural glimpse of hope,
warmth, and loving melodious calm in an otherwise quite chaotic time for humanity.