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Artist: Rotem Sivan
Album: Heart Thieves
Genre: Fusion, Contemporary Jazz
Released: 2025
Quality: FLAC (tracks+.cue)
Tracklist:
01. The Path (5:25)
02. Eden (4:29)
03. Gigi (6:12)
04. In Hopes (4:36)
05. Black Hole Sun (4:10)
06. Lullaby (4:14)
07. Will They Fly (4:02)
08. Gettin' (1:20)
09. In the Mood (5:50)
10. Boufim (1:40)
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Persoonel:
Rotem Sivan - guitar
Hamish Smith - bass
Miguel Russell - drums
Ben Wendel, Oded Tzur - saxophone
Produced by Ben Wendel (Kneebody), this strikingly beautiful project celebrates Sivan’s infant twins, Gigi and Eden — and reflects on Eden’s continuing fight against brain cancer.
In January, the Israeli-born and Brooklyn-based guitarist Rotem Sivan spent his birthday at NYU Langone hospital, in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park neighborhood. It was a day, and a night, he’ll never forget, no matter how much he might want to.
As his wife, Lore, watched over their six-month-old daughter, Gigi, at the couple’s apartment, Rotem sat up looking after Gigi’s twin brother, Eden, in the pediatric unit. For months Eden had suffered through escalating and unexplainable respiratory illness, and now things only seemed to be getting worse.
A bit after midnight, after seeing his child’s breathing drop to frightening levels of instability, a courageous nurse disregarded a doctor’s orders and put Eden on oxygen, then implored the doctor to examine him again. Immediately, any notion of wait-and-see was gone. Eden was admitted to the ICU, where doctors rapidly moved in and out of his room, with steely looks of urgency that would terrify any parent.
A breathing tube was inserted and a CT scan was done. An MRI that wasn’t previously available for various reasons was imminent. “All of a sudden it was a different game,” says Rotem. He called his wife, who was quick to answer as Gigi had woken up crying — a rare occurrence for a child who typically slept soundly for 11-hour stretches. With incredible urgency, a close friend took a taxi over to the apartment to look after Gigi, and Lore quickly got to the hospital. Once Eden went in for his MRI, his parents had a moment to reflect on the unspeakable trauma they were now faced with and walked down the street to the Gemini Restaurant, sat down in a booth and wept for the next hour and a half. These days, that comfort-food haven where they continue to eat now carries a name, “We call it the crying diner,” Rotem says.
Upon returning to the hospital after the MRI was completed, the sun was just about to come up, and the oncology team entered Eden’s room and asked Rotem and Lore to sit down. The words that followed seemed to tumble out in slow, dreamlike motion: “What we see is that Eden has a tumor in his brain and we need to operate right now. We’ve already called the doctors and they’re on their way.” Eden’s parents were given some time alone with their son before the immeasurably risky surgery would begin. Then he was put under.
What the surgeons found and removed was a golf ball-sized malignant tumor, that had been pushing against Eden’s brainstem and wreaking havoc on his core body functions. The infant was diagnosed with ATRT, a rare and aggressive tumor, and remains at NYU Langone, where he is currently undergoing chemotherapy.
Rotem and Lore essentially live there too, taking turns sleeping on a mattress next to their son. Their lives are now spent researching and considering new treatment options while navigating the vagaries of the insurance industry. There have been devastating setbacks since the surgery, including a life-threatening seizure, and sights that no parent should ever have to take in — such as Eden during and after his surgery, when he “looked like a power strip,” as Rotem recalls, with all manner of cords and cables extending out from his tiny body. Somehow, Rotem and Lore are hanging on.
“I try to do a few things that make me happy every day,” says Rotem. He walks with his son through the hallways outside his hospital room. He plays keyboard and guitar while Lore sings for him. He tries to practice a bit at night while Eden sleeps. But mostly, he says, “I try to just be with him.”