On January 1, 1998, Berry Sakharof released his fourth album "Touches", if we wrote that his second album "Signs of Weakness" was an influential album and one of the biggest rock albums in the country, then this album is Berry's breakthrough album to the mainstream. To put it more subtly, this is the album that brought Berry from the alternative rock to the mainstream of Israeli radio.
This is the best-selling album among Sakharof's albums, and he even won four "Tammuz" awards.
Berry continues here the combination of electronic elements and adds elements of Mediterranean music with rock outputs that reflect his musical DNA.
The album includes songs that have become a milestone in Israeli music such as the opening song of the album "That's How It Is (To Love You)" which was played non-stop on radio stations and was the opening song of the Israeli drama series "Saturdays and Holidays" and was originally written and recorded for the series, "Slaves" with Berry guitar trademark, "Touches" which was played on all kinds of dance floors around the country, "Whole Heart" that opens with the oriental violins and the sweeping drumming as if we were in a Turkish men's club in the 40s and the song "Summer City" so powerful and addictive !!
(Photo: Ido Erez)
In this album, as in any of Berry's albums in our opinion, there are also songs in which he experiences more and stretches the boundaries of his musical creation and that of his friends who work with him. Berry is known for his talent for working with other artists and giving them the freedom of expression in his work, he does not state or demand anything specific but rather asks you to express your creative essence and bring it out in his album. There are fascinating and different songs on this album like "Life Opposite" that didn't sound like something Berry had created until then, the intriguing and mysterious "Foreign Land", and "Two Faces" so diverse in their musical dynamics and the special "Time Tunnel" as well.
Many musicians participated in the creation of the album. Among them, Yizhar Ashdot, Oren Lutenberg, Danny Makov, Tal Segev, Peter Roth, Sharon Rotter, Assaf Amdursky, Johnny Shuali, Dan Toren, Micha Sheetrit and many others. As we mentioned earlier, Berry likes to draw inspiration from other artists, and if he likes another artist's idea or work he asks him to put it out on his album freely.
In 2018, Berry celebrated 20 years of the album with a festive show in which he performed the 12 songs on the album in the same order (and other additional performances), and with him on stage also participated: Haim Laroze, Danny Makov, Assaf Amdursky, and Johnny Shuali.
Listen to the album on: Spotify, Apple Music