Visionary artist, compassionate human being and Israeli superstar, AVIV GEFFEN, comfortably outsells Madonna, Coldplay and U2 in his home country and has over 2.5 million record sales worldwide. On September 7th, with all the homeland success he could dream of tucked under his belt, Geffen is approaching a whole new audience with the release of his first English language album. Self-titled and featuring the enormo-single ‘It Was Meant To Be A Love Song’, the album has been recorded utilising the talents of a legendary producer triumvirate that includes Trevor Horn, Ken Nelson and Dave Sitek: Horn is the Grammy Award winning man behind luminary acts such as Grace Jones, Seal, Tina Turner, Paul McCartney, Simple Minds, Mike Oldfield, Marc Almond, and Belle & Sebastian; Ken Nelson has won three Grammy awards and two Mercury Music prizes whilst working with acts like Coldplay, Ray LaMontagne, Echo & The Bunnymen, Paolo Nutini & Snow Patrol; and Dave Sitek has produced the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Liars & Foals.

Horn, Nelson, Sitek and Geffen have created an edgier sound to previous Geffen recordings. Having said that Geffen has always had an edge and always been part of the zeitgeist: in 1993 he released the controversial ‘Cloudy Now’ which rebelliously featured the F-word, was banned from Israeli radio and yet topped the charts. Two years later he publicly made peace with politician Yitzhak Rabin at a political rally after singing ‘Cry for You’ and moments later Rabin was tragically assassinated. This has never deterred his hopeful spirit and Geffen continues to make hits, sell out 40,000 seater concerts and his female fanbase swells with young teenage women drawn to his sharp and quirky David Bowie-esque style, and his conscious and thought provoking lyrics. Ironically, on Aviv Geffen, he is joined by David Bowie’s pianist Mike Garson and now counts Bowie himself and Lou Reed as avid admirers.

For the new album, Geffen has introduced the F-Gen project which involves inviting the next generation of creative talent to be involved in his music video, artwork and styling. Unlike many similar competitions, F-Gen winners will receive a substantial budget to create their vision and a substantial financial contribution to the nourishment of their talents.

Geffen, by way of a song he wrote called ‘Everybody’s Child’ is currently putting pressure on the Israeli government to expedite a deal to bring home a soldier by the name of Gilad Shalit who was captured in June 2006 and has been held hostage in the Gaza Strip since. Remarkably the government seem to be listening and the song is now all over Israeli news. Geffen is donating all profits from the song to the campaign for Shalit’s release and urging people to help bring the soldier home.

Music – and the world for that matter - needs people who aren’t afraid to speak their minds. It also needs inspiration from men as compassionate and engaging as Aviv Geffen.