Sefi Zisling // The Eisenberg Review Interview
Photo by Yarden Rokach.
Sefi Zisling plays the trumpet with a deep sense of memory. His phrasing feels lived-in, shaped as much by what he has absorbed as what he chooses to say in the moment.
For me, his playing became a way into the broader Tel Aviv scene. I kept hearing him across records that felt connected but hard to map at first. In the hazy world of Liquid Saloon. In the orbit of Rejoicer and Raw Tapes, which released his debut Beyond the Things I Know. His presence became a throughline. Follow the trumpet, and the scene starts to come into focus.
His latest album, The Librarian, gets at the core of how he approaches music. He’s described himself that way, as someone who catalogs what he loves. Sounds, records, relationships, moments. Then returns to them with intention.
You can hear that across his work. Expanse leans into live, collective energy. Welcome Sunset sharpens the focus, drawing on 70s jazz-funk in the lineage of Roy Ayers, and nearly didn’t get released. The Librarian turns inward, shaped in part by the influence of Yusef Lateef and dedicated to the people closest to him.
We get into all of it here. From why he chose the trumpet, to how he moves between scenes, to the ideas behind The Librarian.
