"I just got up and played like a robot, until everything came back to me with a bang"

Ran Elmaleh, a musician from the band "Knessiat Hasechel" and a resident of Kibbutz Dorot in the Gaza envelope, recounts his experiences from October 7 and the creative crisis that followed. For two years he was unable to play or create, until building a music room in the kibbutz led to a breakthrough. The band's new album is in the mixing stages, and Elmaleh is participating in the "Voices from the Envelope" exhibition in Jaffa, showcasing artists from the envelope alongside works of those murdered on October 7.

Ran Elmaleh, a musician from the band "Knessiat Hasechel" and a resident of Kibbutz Dorot in the Gaza envelope, recounts in an interview his experiences from October 7, 2023. He describes the initial confusion, the evacuation to Eilat with his family, and the prolonged stay away from home. He has now returned to the kibbutz and feels relatively safe, but admits that shock and repression accompany him. The creative crisis that lasted about two years manifested as a complete inability to play or listen to music. The breakthrough came with the construction of a music room in the kibbutz, where he spent eight months and wrote an entire album. The band's new album is in the mixing stages. Concurrently, Elmaleh is participating in the "Voices from the Envelope" exhibition at the Amiad Center in Jaffa, which displays works by over 75 artists from the envelope, alongside works by artists murdered on October 7, including Aviv Atzili, Haim Peri, and Roi Idan. Elmaleh explains that his artistic work deals with processes of deconstruction and abstraction, reflecting the feeling between destruction and construction that characterizes the area. He expresses cautious optimism about the future.