Peak, Zwick

Henryk Peak was born in Wroclaw (Poland) in 1951 . In 1956, his family repatriated to Israel and settled in Ramat Gan . The boy attended a music school, studying classical music, but was drawn to pop and rock. For most of the 60s, he played in the "rhythm groups" - the first Israeli rock groups, starting with the group "Ha-Khedim" ("Echoes"), where he played the guitar from 15 years old ^[1] . Among the groups in which Peak played after that were Telstar, Ha-shmenim ve-ha-razim and Chocolate. As the holder of a musical education, he usually played a synthesizer in these groups and was the arranger of songs ^[3] . Neither in “Telstar” nor in “Ha-shmenim ve-ha-razim” the vocal parts did not trust him, and only in “Chocolate” did he start to sing along with the others ^[1] .

In 1970, Peak was invited to play Claude in the Israeli production of Hair . In 1971, the first solo disc of Peak was released with songs to the words of Ehud Manor and Jonathan Gefen and his own music; accompanied by the popular rhythm group "Churchilim". At the beginning of next year, his first solo album, “Zoe Haderech Sheli” ( Russian “This Is My Way” ), was released. The music of Peak in this album already demonstrated the features characteristic of his further work, combining a light pop foundation with elements of rock ; included in the album and lyric songs - such as a duet with Ilan Rubina . Collaboration with Rubin continued after this album. She recorded a number of Peak songs, and later she was joined by other recognized stars in Israeli pop music, including Hawa Alberstein and Edna Leo .

Releasing his first album with the major label CBS Records , Peak for the next several years created the image of an alternative artist, contrasting himself with the established tradition in Israeli pop music. His next albums were released by the Coliphon company, specializing in misrahi music , not rock. Only in 1978 did his album “Music” come out again with CBS Records ^[4] .

In the 70s, Peak, who called himself in an interview “Israeli David Bowie ” (his photo in silver tones on one of the albums copies the album cover of Bowie Aladdin Sane ), appeared on the stage in shiny, rainbow-colored costumes, with a lot of makeup on his face. His work was an Israeli version of glam rock , he devoted a lot of time to PR, and on the covers of albums he was regularly portrayed surrounded by half-naked women, propagandizing himself as a sex symbol ^[4] . In 1973, Peak’s song “Now I Know” performed by Ilanit and Shlomo Artsi was performed in the hit parade of Galei Tsahal radio station and brought him the title of “Composer of the Year”. The following year, he performed in the USA at the Hasidic music festival with the New York band The Good Rats and received an offer to sign a contract with her for three years, but chose to return to Israel. In 1976, he played in the movie "Midnight Artist" and recorded the soundtrack to this tape ^[1] .

Although Peak had more teen fans by this time than any other local musician, and the discs differed in tens of thousands of copies, he was not considered, unlike his contemporaries and colleagues, a serious musician, his music was regarded as imitative and not enough Israeli ^[3] . Critics were annoyed by his vulgar manner of dressing, and the extravagance of performance, and singing "in the nose." Only in 1979, ballads from the album “Music” to poems by classic poets Nathan Jonathan and Alexander Penn finally received positive reviews ^[4] . The album itself attracted the attention of the general public: in two months 40 thousand copies were sold ^[1] .

In the early 80s, a peak emerged in the work of Peak. His style began to shift from the light stage towards a more serious rock. This was expressed in the 1982 album "Ahshav" ( Russian "Now" ). The compositions on the disc were worked out more thoroughly than usual, in addition to the Peak itself allowing the musicians accompanying him to shine. MOOMA website calls this disc the best in Zwicky Peak's performing career, but at the same time it turned out to be a commercial failure. During these years, Peak's popularity as a performer began to decline, although his songs performed by other musicians were still in demand. Among the songs of Peak that gained popularity during these years were “Shir ha-frech” ( Russian “Song of an accessible girl” , 1978, performed by Ofra Haza ) ^[4] and “A Thousand Kisses” (1986, performed by Yoram Gaon ), and in 90s - “ Diva ”, who won the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest in the performance of Dana International ^[1] .

In the 2000s, Peak continued to perform both as a singer and as a songwriter for other artists. In 2002, his song “Together we light a candle” performed by Sarit Hadad took 12th place at Eurovision . At the same time, the Habima Theater put on the musical “Mary-Lou”, completely built on the hits of Zwicky Peak, in imitation of the English musical Mamma Mia! on the songs of the group ABBA . In 2003, his song “Hasta la vista” was performed at the Eurovision Song Contest by Ukrainian representative Alexander Ponomaryov ^[5] . In 2005, his hit "Heart", which was included in the debut album of singer Maya Busquila , helped him disperse in a gold run in three weeks. Peak also wrote songs for his daughters Sharon and Daniela, who formed the duet “Bnot Peak” ( Russian “Daughters of the Peak” ) ^[1] . In 2018, Daniela Peak married American director Quentin Tarantino ^[6] .

In 2005, the filming of the documentary biographical series dedicated to Zwick Piku ended. The series was released under the name "Maestro" on the paid cable channel "Beep!" ^[1] . In 2009, the four-episode musical “Always One Dream,” based on Peak’s songs ^[7], was released on Israeli screens. In 2011, Zwick Peak received the Israel Composers, Authors and Music Publishers Award ( AKUM ), one of the country's most prestigious non-academic music awards, for his career achievements ^[8] .

• Motti Regev & Edwin Seroussi. Tzvika Pick // Popular music and national culture in Israel . - Berkeley, Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 2004 .-- P. 142-144. - ISBN 0-520-23652-1 .

• Personal site (eng.)
• Discography on the stereo-mono website (Hebrew)
• Zwick Peak on the MOOMA portal (Hebrew)
• Zwick Peak video channel (official) on YouTube