Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Ljubljana / Orto bar / Slovenia
Concert date: 23.04.2014
Attendance: 70
Miha Vanič is a well-known Slovenian vocalist who got his chops working with the bands Amala, Brizani Project, Bassment and Dejan Pečenko Trio. With them he’s played quite a few of the more prominent Slovenian venues with real tradition, such as Cankarjev dom and the Lent festival. He certainly doesn’t lack experience, know-how or talent, even though the guy never played the central role in those past bands. With his solo studio debut »Devet življenj« he finally took that step too and moved into the center of everything happening on the album. That was back in 2011.
That’s enough of an intro, so now it’s time to head once again to this year’s Ortofest, which reserved April 23, 2014 on its bill for the performance of Miha Vanič and his backing mini-orchestra. That’s made up of the duo Aritmija, with Tilen Stepišnik and Šemsudin Džopa on guitars, two thirds of Moonlight Sky Trio, or in plain terms the rhythm section tandem of Žiga Kožar (drums) and Janez Moder (bass), plus the “master of the wind” Miha Hawlina (alto and soprano sax) and keyboardist Miloš Rebula.
Miha and his comrades took the stage a little before half past ten in the evening. The place was completely empty! Just a handful of heads. Everybody else was still hanging out front, smoking. Luckily the sound this time was seriously “cranked up”, which apparently worked as a proper wake-up call, because the crowd finally piled in, around 70 strong, and got stuck into the “racket”! Roughly 70 people is a pretty nice number considering Miha doesn’t exactly play around every corner every day. So for now, his name is still among the lesser-known acts on the Slovenian music scene.
But no worries, with a backing crew like that in his pocket, whose members also contributed their talents to Miha’s studio debut »Devet življenj« (2011), there’s nothing to be afraid of. Miha and the crew played pretty much the entire debut and slipped four brand-new songs into the set. He did the first one in an “electrified” version with the full band, and the other three in an acoustic outfit, backed by the unerring duo Aritmija. So material for a new studio album is in the works, and that’s great news.
The crew of excellent backing musicians, working on a mini-orchestra principle, gave the singer an incredible backdrop, and the guy milked it for all it was worth with full-blooded, lived-through vocal interpretations. From the first moment of the gig to the last. As mentioned, this time the show was spoiled by the realization of just how loud the sound was. The electric guitar and bass guitar were eerily blasting up front, it was clear the keyboards couldn’t be heard at all because of it, and a few times Miha’s vocals were “drowning” in those conditions too. The art kinetics that Miha Vanič is developing with his crew is a jigsaw of many sonic layers of stylistic fine mechanics, contributed into this melting pot by every single member of the septet, and it needs to be mixed at an equal level within such a musical body. Only then can you fully enjoy a performance of material that’s way too demanding and multilayered to be thrown under the camouflage of over-distorted racket. Still, the gig delivered proof and an important realization: Miha and his crew are a must-see for every music gourmet who loves a stylistic blend of many genres, from rock, funk, jazz, blues, soul and pop to world music. As a debut, the album »Devet življenj« is incredibly mature and strong in its arrangements and compositions. And we got that confirmation this evening at Orto bar too!
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