Location: Cerkno / Star plac / Slovenia
Date: Saturday, 11 July 2020
After a blunt dose of that brave new world reality — the one we sink deeper into day by day, with no salvation in sight until the final catharsis (that is, the probable and thorough annihilation of humanity, one way or another) — RockLine also bolted off to one of the pandemic-conditioned concert events, amid a live-music scene that has been literally shattered and reduced to rubble. This is what we’re witnessing in the wake of the newly refreshed rules of the game, which are supposed — through all manner of extreme absurdity — to guarantee the survival of neoliberal capitalism, or alternatively to enable the global expansion of the Chinese model, which is worse. Collapse is guaranteed. It has already begun. Years ago. But that’s a reality we’ll keep debating some other time, some other place — if there’s still time left for that kind of conversation at all.
Cerkno and the Keltika festival! So here we are, back at our beloved venue. A temple of unforgettable musical indulgences we’ve witnessed year after year! This year’s Keltika Saturday evening program — following a vivid afternoon thunderstorm — was opened by the long-awaited performance of the outstanding and internationally acclaimed wind player Vasko Atanasovski and his Adrabesa quartet. The concert that was supposed to happen at the Kinogledališče in Tolmin on 20 March 2020 we finally got to see, nearly four months late.
Apparently, RockLine has caught the concert-depleted fever as well. Our designated lucky team member made it to Cerkno that evening with camera gear in complete disarray and a massive travel delay, arriving at the venue a mere 25 minutes before the end of the set. Back in February 2020, something like that would have been unheard of and entirely unacceptable. Even under half an hour of concert enjoyment was enough to get a very good sense of what the genius of the extraordinary Vasko — armed with an inexhaustible arsenal of wind instruments and, above all, with an incredible musical breadth and a multi-layered musical refinement that never runs dry on inspiration — can conjure up time and again.
Sharing the stage with Vasko that evening, conjuring the playful potency of a freewheeling theater of arabesques riding the devilish charge of exotically fractured rhythmic structures, were double bassist Žiga Golob (Vlado Kreslin, Tamara Obrovac, occasional member of the Vasko Atanasovski trio), drummer and percussionist Marjan Stanič (Čompe, Bakalina Velika, Foltin, Jimmy Barka Experience, Vasko Atanasovski trio), and the exceptional Italian accordionist Simone Zanchini (Gianluigi Trovesi, Paolo Fresu, Han Bennink, Jim Black, John Patitucci, soloist with the world-famous Scala orchestra in Milan). Now, if we circle back to our Vasko and add just a few of the biggest names in the world he’s collaborated with throughout his rich musical career — among others: Living Colour, Marc Ribot, Hindi Zahra, Vlatko Stefanovski (Leb i Sol), Tommy Emmanuel, Glen Velez, Greg Cohen, Michel Godard, Vasil Hadzimanov, Matija Dedič, Tamara Obrovac, Damir Imamovič, Xu Fengxia, Roberto Bartoli, Zoltán Lantos — it becomes clear that this seemingly modest genius, who has kept himself grounded in the pose of a down-to-earth troubadour, is in fact (on the international scene) a towering musical entity.
In short. Given everything in the previous paragraph, it doesn’t take long to conclude that with a quartet drawing its historical DNA from Vasko’s groups Melem and Adrabesa (septet), there’s no joking around, no hiding places, and no musical puzzle without a magical solution. The guys know each other inside out, and they carry an extraordinary amount of stage mileage and rich experience to boot. Vasko is not short on theatrical flair. The likeable and infectious virtuoso stuns you with the playful antics of his sparkling solo adventures, upgrading his stage performance with theatrically jagged leaps and gestures that keep the energy and atmosphere climbing. The dialogue between the four pillars of this extraordinary cross-genre fusion is endlessly gripping, challenging, breathtaking in execution, and — backed by a voracious rhythmic rhetoric — it simply moves mountains: it reaches into every depth of our “feeling” selves and softens even the stoniest of hearts. Despite the many moments of conciseness and deliberateness that such a complexly structured stage play demands, the band is so seasoned that they find each other on stage almost telepathically, in a fiery blaze of intuition, which guarantees the kind of exceptional magic this quartet effortlessly embodies in performance. We were certainly glued to our chairs — though the audience kept shifting into various poses of solitary swaying, and it wouldn’t have been surprising if someone had toppled off their seat. Chairs sparsely scattered beneath the tent at the Star plac in Cerkno. The quartet blew up the stage, but due to the obligatory “seated” arrangement, that real chemistry between audience and band was missing — even though the band walked away with a full bag of endless ovations.
The closing stretch featured Concerto Balsamico (album »Bohemia«, 2016) and, in the encore, Yellow Sky (album »Eros Tanatos«, 2016), while the rest of the set saw Vasko and the crew presenting entirely new material already lined up for release on his upcoming studio outing. Some time ago, this wind-playing musical wizard — based in Maribor and of Macedonian-Serbian roots — joined the colorful roster of artists under the umbrella of MoonJune Records. Fans of avant-garde music and every conceivable variation of jazz fused with other genres will know exactly what that means.
Vasko holds his eclectic position in the world of music and maintains it with all the artistic conviction of a devilishly boiling fire and heartfelt sincerity. He proved it again with the performance of his Adrabesa quartet in Cerkno, making a full-blooded contribution to the gradual revival of the live music pulse even on “liberated territory.” Moving, sensual, fiery! Imagine how it would have been without the required distancing and audience caps. Don’t miss next weekend’s concert event at the Star plac, featuring Wild Strings Trio and the Iraqi-Austrian ethno/folk duo Golnar & Mahan. “See you again” soon in Cerkno!
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
