Yair Elazar Glotman
Background information
Occupation(s)	Composer Musician Sound artist
Instrument(s)	Double bass Bass guitar Gimbri Guitar
Labels	Deutsche Grammophon, 130701, Bedroom Community, Miasmah, Subtext
Website	Yair Elazar Glotman

Yair Elazar Glotman (born 1987) is a composer and musician based in Berlin.

He releases his own music and composes film scores,^[1] most recently Netflix's "Reptile" , A24's "False Positive" (co-composed with Lucy Railton) and Johann Johannsson’s film Last and First Men^[2] (co-composed with Jóhann Jóhannsson).^[3] In addition, he collaborates and contributes double bass recordings for other composers, including Hildur Guðnadóttir,^[4][5] Ben Frost and Geoff Barrow. His musical output within these various mediums and collaborations is strongly anchored in his training as an orchestral double bass player and in electroacoustic composition. His practice employs a range of improvisation, extended double bass techniques, and a special interest in textural, spatial and spectral compositions and combining analog and digital processing.^[6]

Early life

Glotman was born in Tel Aviv, Israel. He started his musical education at the age of eight, initially on the classical guitar and bass guitar. He later took up the double bass and received both jazz and classical music training.^[7] Between 2006-2008 he studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Music, then moved to Berlin to study orchestral double bass^[8] at the Berlin University of the Arts^[9] under Prof. Michael Wolf. He later expanded his studies to include electroacoustic composition as well as media and sound art under Prof. Dr. phil. Alberto de Campo. He completed his Meisterschule degree in 2015.

Musical career

In recent years, Glotman has been increasingly composing for film and media,^[10][11] all the while continuing to release music under his own name^[12][13][14] and in collaboration with other composers.^[15]

Film and TV score work

Glotman’s work for film has included co-composing False Positive^[16] with Lucy Railton, an A24 production written by Ilana Glazer and John Lee. In 2018, he began collaborating with the influential, late composer Jóhann Jóhannsson on his directorial debut Last and First Men,^[17] developing the film score and recording for him. Glotman also worked with him as additional music composer^[18] for Mandy^[19] (2018) and recorded for other projects. After his passing, he was tasked with co-composing and producing the score of Last and First Men.^[20][21] The film premiered at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2020,^[22] and the soundtrack album was released by Deutsche Grammophon.^[23] In addition, he has worked with and contributed to scores by composers such as Hildur Guðnadóttir,^[24] Ben Frost, Geoff Barrow^[25] and Ben Salisbury, Dustin O'Halloran and Hauschka.^[26]

Solo Work

Under his own name, Glotman has released music that is directly tied to his training and relationship with the double bass.^[27] Études (2015)^[28] was an attempt at disrupting the learned habits of playing a classical instrument and exploring hidden resonances, physical vibrations, and the outer edges of the instrument's acoustic dynamic range. Compound (2017)^[29][27] expands these experiments to a trio, adding pianist Rieko Okuda and percussionist Marcello Silvio Busato into the musical conversation.

Glotman’s solo projects include KETEV,^[30] a dark techno / Ambient project under which he released albums on the labels Opal Tapes,^[31] Where To Now? and Portals Editions.^[32] In addition, he has released under Blessed Initiative,^[33] an Electroacoustic project on the label Subtext.

Collaborations

Glotman has worked closely with musical collaborators.^[34] Together with Swedish composer Mats Erlandsson^[35] he has released two albums,^[27] and with Icelandic violinist and composer Viktor Orri Árnason^[36] he has released an album on the Icelandic Label Bedroom Community.^[37]

Discography

Filmography

Awards and nominations