Yonatan Gat

Yonatan Gat (Hebrew: יונתן גת) is an Israeli American producer, guitarist, and composer based in New York City. His cross-genre work has been called "a vital new music form" by a "legendary live performer" by Magnet magazine, "melding punk, improvisation, world music, and avant garde". His performances were so controversial in his home country that his first band, Monotonix, got banned from playing shows in almost all venues of the country, leading Gat—a conscientious objector to Israel's mandatory military service—to leave Israel for a decade of touring, during which he gave 1,500 concerts in thirty countries. Rolling Stone editor David Fricke celebrated the multiculturalism of Gat's sound, calling him "a citizen of the world", adding that "Gat wields his guitar like a universal translator". After variously relocating to Paris, Porto, and New Orleans, Gat found a home in New York, where his work has been profiled by The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Wire, UNCUT, Pitchfork, NPR, Vice, The New Yorker, and People. The Village Voice named him "Best Guitarist in New York, 2013", and The Guardian listed his sophomore album, Universalists, in their top ten Contemporary Classical Music albums of 2018. PopMatters called it a "Visionary New Album for Rock Music, rearranged electronically in unpredictable ways that suggest Teo Macero, DJ Screw, Yeezus-era Kanye West, but not much else in rock music".