Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Cerkno / Star plac / Slovenia
Concert date: June 22, 2017
Attendance: 100
Ticket price: €0.00 (free admission)!
It was one of those insanely muggy, scorching days that kept lining up one after another this June. The itch for a fresh concert adventure beat out the tempting thought of shade and a nicely chilled slice of watermelon, which the calm and quiet of a Thursday afternoon would otherwise have called for. Clearly, the addiction to the adrenaline kicked off by the combo of driving and gig-going is relentless and won’t let go.
Standalone gigs in Cerkno in the middle of the work week are usually a rarity. Normally we’re there for shows on Fridays and Saturdays. Anyway. Cerkno isn’t so far from Ljubljana that it’s not worth sacrificing an hour behind the wheel to reach this music hotspot, nestled at the foot of Porezen and its cluster of peaks. Especially when the superb prog and jazz-rock fusioneers from Idrija, Divje jezero, announce a show there. We already caught the band three weeks ago in Ljubljana, when they played Hostel Celica, but let’s be honest. This is an exceptionally high-quality outfit that put out a new studio album, »Pobeg iz blodnjaka«, in mid-May this year and whose gigs always deliver total satisfaction.
The guys played the open-air stage on exactly the same spot where, a month earlier, the stage stood for the 22nd edition of the traditional Jazz Cerkno festival. Only this time the stage rig for Divje jezero was considerably smaller than the one that hosted the festival action.
Divje jezero are a band like no other in Slovenia. They create and stay put within a loose genre premise of archaic musical dimensions that were hugely relevant and commercially successful throughout the seventies, when the unforgettable aces of jazz-rock fusion thrilled crowds with their studio and live masterpieces, led by Weather Report, Return to Forever, Billy Cobham, Herbie Hancock, Jeff Beck, Mahavishnu Orchestra and a few others. Divje jezero can be very proud of what they’ve achieved. They’ve got two excellent studio albums of pure-blooded instrumental sorcery under their belt. They’re superb musicians who’ve put serious mileage behind them to reach the desired mutual »tuning« and who’ve honed themselves musically to the point where they can confidently develop their own authorial voice, their own musical artistry. They’re a perpetually thrilling conglomerate of compositional complexity that never gets »draggy«, never reaches for avant-garde bludgeoning, and so delivers, at every moment, overall musical cohesion and accessibility, even for less demanding music fans.
The guys felt right at home in Cerkno. That’s thanks to a first-rate crew of seasoned, well-oiled organizers who over the years have brought plenty of outstanding music events to life, and with them Cerkno takes its rightful place on Slovenia’s cultural map, clearly distancing itself from that stock cliché of “just another sleepy backwater on the Slovenian map”, where the sound of cowbells and the ringing of the nearby church bell reign supreme. The heat did cause the band some headaches, since it didn’t let up even after the sun had set. Every concert by this band is its own self-contained story, and at least as far as my perception of their shows goes, the feeling is that they get more and more thrilling from gig to gig. The compositions are woven »loosely«, exploratory, with sudden switches between motifs, rhythms and moods. At the same time, they give the quintet’s musicians a constant, generous supply of space to stretch out and blow things up through improvisation. In that department all the instruments work as equals, and there’s no feeling that any of them overpowers another. It’s a musical package with a superb sonic balance in how all the instrumental building blocks are laid out across the musical landscape they create.
This gig was more than superb too. The band played their entire new studio record “Pobeg iz blodnjaka” (2017). From start to finish. They also worked in highlights from the debut studio album »Mestni vrvež« (2015) and spiced up the show with a reworked version of the old track 2D, written back when Divje jezero were still a trio of guitar, drums and bass. In the final stretch the guys managed to build an atmospheric crescendo for the whole performance, even though a slight »attrition« in the crowd could already be felt by then. The asphalt and concrete kept radiating heat relentlessly. Merciless, all of it.
Divje jezero showed up in Cerkno as an intensely committed quintet with its own musical culture and highly creative intelligence, compelling any listener to fully enjoy the musical world these sturdy lads from Idrija pull you into. Their music is positive through and through, with a streak of playful mischief and a spirit of exploration, from which it’s not hard to conclude that Divje jezero are a constantly shifting musical variable. A known unknown that, through the prism of free-spirited evolution, will keep pleasantly and positively surprising music gourmets and connoisseurs in the future too. A band, then, that the international scene should get to know, a scene where prog rock and jazz-rock fusion have been at home for over fifty years. Back on Slovenian soil, despite all their faith and the goodwill of their supporters, Divje jezero will most likely have to keep fighting hard for a position that clearly separates them from the (unjust) neglect of similarly brilliant bands of Slovenian origin. Ironic and sad enough. Given all that outstanding quality. All for as long as the Slovenian (musically undemanding) masses keep wading »childishly« into folk-pop and Balkan parties.
Setlist
1. Pobeg iz blodnjaka
2. Milano
3. Jutranji ples
4. Noč in dan
5. Mornarska zmeda
6. Žirafe
7. Vzemi si trenutek
8. Marakeška tržnica
9. Ob pravem času
10. 2D
11. Nomad
12. Kapljica
13. Policijska patrulja
14. Medley: Pink Panter / Jovano Jovanke
15. Mestni vrvež
Photo Gallery
