Self-released
Release date: 10.01.2020
Producer: Jernej Zoran
EP length: 15.20 min
Genre: guitar rock / art rock
Rating: 9.0 / 10
Jernej Zoran steps up with one of the first Slovenian rock releases of the year: the new EP “Deuce”. Remember the cover of Marillion’s “Marbles” (2004)? In much the same way as the kid on the cover of that album by the famous British art rock institution, Jernej Zoran greets you from the cover of his new EP, which he’s used to march confidently into the new year. This time the plucky, sparkling and endlessly inventive musician from Dolenjska, first and foremost a guitarist, composer, arranger and producer, serves up an all-instrumental EP. If you know this musician’s past studio exploits, and especially if you’re drawn to albums where the art-magic of pure-blooded guitar playing takes center stage, weaving through the borderlands of hard rock, blues, soft neo-classical outlines and atmospheric art rock “catapults” that speak to the cerebral and the transcendental, you’ll find plenty to love in the EP “Deuce.”
What Jernej Zoran delivers with the EP “Deuce” forms an instant link with the EP “Gotscha!” from 2017 (RockLine review HERE), which Jernej released under the alias Ivansson and which is likewise fully instrumental. At the same time, “Deuce” keeps a (perfectly logical) connection and continuity with the still-current full-length studio album “Stik” (RockLine review HERE), since Jernej took both instrumentals from that album and placed them on the EP “Deuce”. As the title hints, the first of the two is punchy, potent in its phrasing, rousing and instantly gripping in the charisma it pours out: the hard-rock “blossoming” instrumental Deuce, which opens the album “Stik”. The other track from “Stik” that we find on this EP stands in stark contrast to the title track: the gentle, searching Eleutheria II, masterfully dosed with neo-classical pastels, shades of southern rock too, and a skillfully introduced (gradual) build-up of moods into a closing crescendo. Both tracks are the backbone of this EP, as their running times show, and also, in terms of compositional detail, its strongest points.
The remaining three tracks are shorter instrumentals that go on to vividly sketch the extremely sensual, subtle and multilayered profile of this musical artist. The closing track of the EP, Daydreamin’, is especially transcendental, with the guitar sound grabbing you through the perfect aesthetics of honest, naturally organic tones, and doing so particularly intensely. Especially in this track, where there’s no rhythm backing and the listener is exposed to nothing but (bare) guitar playing, Jernej comes across as a sensual master of delicately concise, filigree placement and shaping of tones, forged into a fiercely inflammable, compact form. Daydreamin’ speaks in a whisper, like a caressing breeze, and carries you away, high above the sky, as you ride on the wings of a free bird. If you know Peter Green, you’ll find a common atmospheric denominator with that famous ancient Fleetwood Mac instrumental (Albatross). Blue speaks for itself in putting blues music front and center. The sonic nature is again completely turned around, and once more Jernej has managed, with subtle control, softness and supple sensuality, to breathe a character into every tone as he lays down the sequence of notes, pouring his passions and emotions (or inner feelings) into the flow of notes and tones at every moment. Blue is going to “fire up” any Gary Moore fan, too.
The opener Swamp (Oh Yeah), which lays the runway for the EP’s takeoff, is a two-minute instrumental that could easily serve as a film soundtrack. A refined blend of extremely relaxed (southern) rock blues kinetics and, above all, a subtle palette of “gilmouresque” phrasing (an association with the playing style of David Gilmour of Pink Floyd), it grabs you from the start with its remarkable listenability and the red thread of a compact form. The whole EP is like that, and then some. That’s Jernej Zoran as a musical artist, too. An outstanding aesthete at fusing given inspiration with the translation of conceptual insight, the inner self-challenge of an ego trip, into a compact arrangement form that keeps delivering musical allure and brings gourmets and less demanding listeners alike under the same roof. For something like that you have to be an exceptionally skilled tightrope walker, carry a gifted talent laid in your cradle, and manage to express it. When we talk about Jernej Zoran and, in this case, the EP “Deuce”, this sparkling compositional fine-tuning of uniting two “musical languages” has once again found its source, its origin and its primal home.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Swamp (Oh Yeah)
2. Deuce
3. Eleutheria II
4. Blue
5. Daydreamin’
Line-up:
Jernej Zoran: – guitars, bass guitar, programming, percussion
Peter Urek – keyboards
Leonardo Zorzi – orchestrations
Miha Recelj – drums
Miro Tomšič – drums
