Kens
Cover art for KENS's Atarayo (2024), via Discogs
KENS: A Jazz Trio That Formed in Lockdown and Sold Out Its Own Album Launch
KENS: A Jazz Trio That Formed in Lockdown and Sold Out Its Own Album Launch
KENS is an Israeli-Japanese trio built on what the Jerusalem Jazz Festival called, when the group played there for the first time, "the familiar guitar-bass-drums jazz format," used here as scaffolding for something less familiar: pop hooks, African and funk grooves, and prog-rock rhythm layered over real jazz improvisation. Guitarist Kai Livermore, who grew up in Japan and moved to Israel at 17, met bassist Eli Orr (enrolled at the Rimon Jazz Institute, a well-known Israeli jazz conservatory, at just 15) and drummer Noam Arbel (playing professionally since he was 18) while the three were studying there together.
They formed during the COVID-19 pandemic, when almost nobody was playing rooms of any kind, and released their first single, "Downgraded" (featuring keyboardist Itai Portugaly), in February 2021, recorded in the gaps between lockdowns. It didn't stay a bedroom project. In August 2022, KENS put out their debut album, "Contact 123," independently, with no label behind it, and it still landed on Spotify's own editorial playlists and drew write-ups from outlets in Japan, France, and Brazil. Ten days after release, they sold out their own album launch show at Tel Aviv's The Zone Club, filmed and performed in a 360-degree format most young trios never get the budget, or the ambition, to attempt.
The band's name is smaller than the sound suggests: it's an acronym built from the members' own first names, Kai, Eli, and Noam, with an extra "S" thrown in for good measure.
The second album pushed the scale further instead of settling into a formula. "Atarayo," released August 8, 2024, involved roughly 80 collaborators spread across 10 countries and three continents, funded through a Headstart crowdfunding campaign that hit its goal only on the drive's final day. Guests on the record include saxophonist Daniel Zamir on "Hivemind," released as an advance single that July ahead of the full album, and pianist Gadi Stern, of Shalosh and already profiled here, on "7 Wishes." That collaboration led to KENS's first appearance at the Jerusalem Jazz Festival this June, where they shared the stage with Zamir again, with the festival's own program note describing a third KENS album already on the way.
One footnote for anyone who goes digging through the discography: the correct Discogs catalog entry for this band also carries a stray 2009 credit for a French zouk track, a full decade before this KENS existed and nowhere near this genre. It's a database mixup, not a hidden side project, and it's sorted out in full in the discography linked below.
Where to start listening:
- Their official platforms:
- "Contact 123" (2022) for the pandemic-born debut, sample "Downgraded"
- "Atarayo" (2024) for the 80-collaborator sequel, sample "Hivemind" feat. Daniel Zamir
Cover art for KENS's "Atarayo" (2024). No rights-clear photo of KENS was found on Wikimedia Commons after a genuine search, so album cover art stands in here instead of a photo of the band.
KENS: Full Discography
Note: Buy links are plain (non-affiliate) Amazon links — no Associates tag is set up yet as of 2026-07-31; append ?tag=<ASSOCIATES_TAG> to each once Erik provides one.
Discogs artist ID: 4335318. Discogs's own artist-page name field reads "Kens" (data_quality flagged "Needs Major Changes," profile field empty), while both of the band's real release credits render the name in caps as "KENS" — treated here as the same entity, with "KENS" used throughout as the band's own preferred stylization (matches their official site, Bandcamp, and Spotify branding).
Identity confirmed via extraartists credits on both of the band's own releases: Eli Orr (Bass), Noam Arbel (Drums), Kai Livermore (Guitar) appear identically on Contact 123 (2022) and Atarayo (2024), matching the real trio's known lineup and instruments (cross-checked against the band's official site and the Jerusalem Jazz Festival's own program copy).
Name-collision found and excluded (critical, this project's standing risk for short/generic band names): The same Discogs artist ID (4335318) also carries a third credit, a 2009 track called "Zouk'N Wyne" on the French compilation "Passion Zouk 2009" (Wagram Music, release 6844414), credited to an artist "Kens" joined "Et" [another artist] in a Zouk (French Caribbean) genre context. This is a full decade before the Israeli trio existed (they formed circa 2020) and in an unrelated country and genre. This is treated as a Discogs data-merge error, an unrelated "Kens" sharing the same artist ID, not a genuine credit of this band, and is excluded from the tables below. Full extraartists check: curl on release 6844414 confirms the credited name string is "Kens" with no other identifying detail tying it to the Israeli-Japanese trio.
Release-date discrepancy flagged: Discogs's own release-year field for Contact 123 (id 31641445) reads "2021," but that entry is a single community submission flagged "Needs Vote" data quality, with the submitter's own note reading "First entry of this album to Discogs. I did my best." Multiple independent storefronts (Spotify, Apple Music, Qobuz) agree the album released August 12, 2022. This document uses August 12, 2022 as the correct date and flags the Discogs field as likely wrong, not independently re-verified beyond the Discogs API for this session.
As Leader (only 2 releases on Discogs; band's site/socials list additional non-album singles not yet catalogued there, see note below)
| Album Title | Recording / Release Info | Label | Catalog Number | Format | Personnel (per Discogs extraartists) | Featured Guests (per Discogs tracklist credits) | Notes | Listen | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contact 123 | Released August 12, 2022 (Discogs field says 2021; treated as an error, see above) | Not On Label (independent) | none | CD, Album, Stereo | Kai Livermore (guitar); Eli Orr (bass); Noam Arbel (drums) | Itai Portugaly (synth/piano, several tracks incl. "Downgraded"); Israel Papa, Lior Elad, Tamar Shrek, Yuval Gilboa (vocals, "Almost Transparent Blue"); Sefi Zisling (trumpet, "Never Have I Ever"); Homok (synth, "Never Have I Ever"); Roy Lazar (acoustic guitar, "The Visitor"); Danille Sassi (flute, "The Visitor"); Jonathan Voltzok (trombone, "The Visitor"); Tal Gordon (trumpet, "The Visitor") | 9 tracks: "Ayatori (Intro)," "Talala," "Sinking Loud," "Almost Transparent Blue," "Con Alma," "Never Have I Ever," "Downgraded," "Transparent Blue," "The Visitor." Debut album; independently released, no label | YouTube (full album playlist) | not found |
| Atarayo | Released August 8, 2024 | Not On Label (independent, crowdfunded via Headstart) | none | CD, Album | Eli Orr (bass); Noam Arbel (drums); Kai Livermore (guitar) | Tenzan Yamada ("Prologue"); Daniel Zamir (saxophone, "Hivemind"); Ronen Shmueli ("Keep it Champ!"); Gadi Stern (piano, "7 Wishes") | 10 tracks: "Prologue," "Unsolved," "Nad-Ned," "Hivemind," "Day Tripper," "Shelter," "Keep it Champ!," "Nardis," "Cycles," "7 Wishes." Crowdfunded second album, ~80 total collaborators across 10 countries and 3 continents per the band's own public statements (not all individually credited in Discogs's per-track data) | YouTube (rep. track "Nad-Ned," uploaded by KENS's own channel) | not found |
Sideman / Guest Appearances
None found under this Discogs artist ID other than the excluded 2009 zouk collision noted above. No compilation or other-artist appearances confirmed for the real trio via the Discogs API in this session.
Not Yet on Discogs (flagged, not fetched via API, sourced from the band's own Bandcamp/official channels only)
The band's Bandcamp page lists additional standalone singles not showing as separate Discogs releases as of this build: "Shelter" (also an Atarayo album track), "Talala" (also a Contact 123 track), and the pre-album advance single release of "Hivemind" (released as a single ahead of the August 2024 album per the Jerusalem Jazz Festival's own program note). These are not independently catalogued as their own Discogs release entries and are flagged here rather than guessed at as separate releases.
Data source note
Pulled via curl -H "Authorization: Discogs token=$DISCOGS_TOKEN" against api.discogs.com (artist profile endpoint, both release detail endpoints, and the artist's full paginated release list, which returned exactly 3 releases on a single page, no further pagination needed). Checkpointed to disk immediately after each fetch.