The Levins, My Friend Hafiz. My Friend Hafiz is a pretty album with more than a hint of the Sixties and Seventies about it. This is the hippie Bay Area at its best — strong on the sspiritual leanings, but well produced and professionally polished. Vocal harmonies are sweet and clear, music is acoustic and gentle, a blend of pop, punk, and folk. Lovely stuff. (self-released)

There is a great joy and love in the music of The Levins ensemble. The Levins folk music speaks the universal language of hope and compassion.

The artists masterfully combines numerous ethnic instruments such as tabla, ney, bansuri Indian flute and various percussion with piano, keyboard, cello, violin, guitar and gentle vocals. As a result they create a very comfortable environment which harmonizes emotions and puts your mind in order. When you listen to this album you realize that the surrounding world is your good friend and we all are strongly connected in it.

In conclusion I could assert that My Friends Hafiz is just three-quarters of an hour of pure listening pleasure. This project is full of inspiring music of the open hearts.

Original review text

The Levins would like to express a heartfelt thank you to all who attended the event and a big welcome all of the new faces and fans. We are grateful to have such a warm, supportive and growing community! We also appreciate all those that have purchased CD since the release. Some have purchased in large quantities for the holidays ahead. Let us know if you are interested by contacting us directly.

My Friend Hafiz, with its poetic companion in book form, The Gift, (Hafiz poetry translated by Daniel Ladinksy) is a great holiday gift set for anyone who wishes give an uplifting gift that keeps on giving!

Reviews and blurbs about the new album and the Nov. 14th CD release party at the Subterranean Arthouse in Berkeley CA:

LUUUUUVVVVVV IT! The production value is outstanding.�Good work! The first track should be playing on radio stations around the world � if not lots and lots of IPods!

     - Emmet B.

This is the most beautiful music ever!!�I adore this CD.

     - Allene R.

Wow! Your music is incredible! So beautiful!�I am so very glad that I came to your CD party�last night. I am also so very grateful to you and Ira for�birthing this lovely and important musical�gift, because in giving birth to this beautiful music, you have helped all of us to allow our hearts to sing, and in doing so you have made the world a better place. I am / we are�truly grateful. I find myself wandering around, not really noticing throughout the day, and then realizing�I am singing/humming/thinking your songs. "The Gift" has now turned into "Your Gift." Your beautiful, musical gift. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

     - Carol H.

Such a joy to see you two and the ensemble up there performing those BEEEEEE-OOOOOOO-tiful songs! Good pipes (of the vocal variety), good souls (of the human variety).

     � Ashby L.

The band was great, the clowns were a classy touch, and we wanted to steal all the art off the walls and take it home.

     � Jim W.

Your CD!� I really love it.�I thought that listening to you on Saturday, for me, was closer to experiencing Hafiz the way he meant it - with my whole body, eyes and ears full. I find that experiencing Hafiz through y'all is even better than reading Hafiz.

     - Jeannie L.

Ira and Julia, great show! I agree with Geri that this music really is almost like a channeled thing because it is so right for you and has such a deep core.�Good for you for doing it.�I hope you can get it heard in spiritual circles so that lots of people can enjoy it.

     - Michael H.

I'm actually trying to ration myself with the CD because like Low's, The Great Destroyer, and Sufjan's, Michigan, I don't want to burn myself out on it by putting it on every time I get close to something with speakers. In true nerdy musician form, I've been trying to analyze why I like it so much and I think it's two things:

Firstly the vocals. There's such a palpable connection between Ira and Julia which really lifts the material above the norm. It's probably something they just take for granted but it's so unusual to hear. It's not just a sonic gelling, although that's there in startling clarity, it's the feeling that those two are so totally on the same page, sharing the same vision - it's kind of spooky and there's a sadness to it because we're glimpsing something that is elevated beyond our normal state of mind but is impossible to maintain. A sense of attainment and a sense of loss at the same time.

Secondly the Hafiz material. So we're all into compassion and tolerance and trying to bear no grudges and loving everyone, even your perceived enemy, but often the application of this message to a popular musical form results in something rather hackneyed and frankly, for your average cynical bastard like me, cheesy. However, this stuff is slightly different, it has great imagery, it's frankly weird at times, it has an edge to it, in short there's just enough there to pull it away from cheesy and towards cool on the awful cheesy - cool continuum that we all live by in this massively over-entitled cage we've constructed for ourselves. The material also pulls the songwriting in unexpected directions often resulting in songs that are slow to unwind so that when you finally come to the super-accessible chorus or tag line the payoff is far greater than it would have been with a more predictable song structure.

So you've got the hits like "Dropping Keys" (that's a hit man) and then you've got the "Wild Horseman" song ("Life giving Sun"?) and "Forgive This Dream." But all the songs have an internal consistency that is largely totally missing from albums nowadays. It's a concept album for Christ's sake!!! By the way, I never skip any of the songs when I'm listening. I listen to the cd all the way through, it really works like very few albums do and I mean ever since albums have existed. Seriously.

I love The Levins.

     - Simon S.