Performers: Jernej Zoran & Ministrstvo Resnice / Fed Horses
Location: Ljubljana / Ljubljanski grad / Slovenia
Date: Wednesday, 29.05.2019
The year turns, and a new GodiBodi festival rolls around. Second year in a row at Ljubljanski grad. Day one turned out even more rock’n’roll than you’d dare to hope, given the guiding spirit of the Celinka music cooperative. Sure, Celinka’s esteemed boss Janez Dovč kicked things off by announcing an evening of pop and folk flavors, but then Jernej Zoran walked in with a cranked-up Telecaster backed by an extra rhythm guitar, together with his Ministrstvo Resnice, fronted by vocalist Nina Radkovič, and stamped a solid rock seal on the festival. Jernej and crew were presenting the freshly released album »Stik«, which keeps up his incredible punch when it comes to convincing songwriting and his streak of consistently excellent studio releases. The man simply never runs out of ideas. What’s fascinating about Jernej is that he can land a song on the radio that’s structurally rooted in the classic rock and pop aesthetics of the eighties, yet dosed with so much musicality that it sticks on air extremely well. Every time. And this highly creative inspiration of the Dolenjska musician and artist never leaves him in the lurch.
Jernej Zoran and his crew put together a kind of »best of« set, delivered two instrumentals, and threw in a few artistically upgraded moments from his days with Društvo mrtvih pesnikov. Nina Radkovič won everyone over with her vocal elegance and deep immersion in the arrangements, both of the songs that her predecessors sing on Zoran’s albums and, of course, the current ones, meaning those from the album «Stik«. Zoran has always had a knack for working with excellent female vocalists, and with Nina he hit the bullseye once again. The band showed some vulnerability in the performance, especially when a string snapped on Marko Verbič, and later too, when he had sorted things out but his Telecaster still refused to get anywhere near a satisfactory level of tuning. »Razpad sistema« and a restart of the song from the top suggest the group hasn’t played much in the last six months, as Zoran has been focused on recording a new studio effort, which in its quality keeps up Zoran’s idea-driven punch, insight, and artistic integrity. But right in the closing stretch Jernej »wrecked the place« with an extended outro solo in the final Poljubi me, proving once more that he’s one of the finest Slovenian defenders of the bible and postulates of six-string theory, schooled in the classic rock branch (read: »blues meets David Gilmour«).
Fed Horses are a band that has been gigging a lot lately. They’re in high demand. Everywhere. They’re getting more and more popular, which is also shown by the heavy rotation of their music on our leading domestic radio stations. That they play a lot was obvious from their set on the first day of this year’s edition of the GodiBodi festival of contemporary original and ethno music. The performance was marked throughout by incredible tightness and a constant, striking, ever-present chemistry in the way the building blocks of the sound worked together, led by the distinctive, sensual, deeply felt vocals of Urša Mihevc. The sound was also extremely well set up, and besides five songs from the »Sinner« EP, the band also played new songs, such as the opener Sprememba and, of course, Ti ne poznaš konjev, which they entered into EMI in the race for a spot at Eurovision. A show you really can’t fault in any way. What we got to witness is the band’s remarkable artistic maturing. They’ve already outgrown their EP from last year through their own self-evolution, and it’s also obvious they’re moving toward writing original songs in Slovenian. Constant focus, conciseness, a firm concentration from the sextet. Jure on the left, surrounded by effects, a master of charming guitar minimalism but with piercing “noises,” ornaments, effects, and thickening of the wall of sound, showed extraordinary finesse the whole time. Even when he strapped on an acoustic guitar and more pedal steel (Ti ne poznaš konjev). It all clicks. Weaves with Daniel Bogataj’s violin (he also handled the extra rhythm guitar), then backed by the sounds of the electric piano and Hammond from keyboardist Mitja Kavčič. The ever-present, penetrating bass of Rok Škrlj, who was placed almost invisibly in the background on stage, yet his bass spoke with incredible presence and a signature contrast that colored the character of the songs and fit perfectly with the rhythmic backbone of drumming newcomer Jure Maček. The latter proved with his drumming that he slotted into the band’s musical vision completely and in no time. For the cherry on top, the band also did a cover of the song Voda, originally by Dan D. They reworked it in their own manner (Jure also took care of the solemn intro with his drum “kettle”), and over and over again the amazing singing of the fascinating Urša Mihevc grabbed our attention, as with her polished vocals, full of sensuality, flexibility, and burdened with passions (even a lovely, yearning sweetness), she cast a spell on the audience time and again.
And just like that, the first day of this year’s GodiBodi festival wrapped up. Three more to go. Each one is its own story! Each one a tale of how sharply penetrating and fresh in ideas we Slovenians can be when we create our own original music.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
