Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Ljubljana / Soho / Slovenia
Concert date: 23.05.2018
Attendance: 40
Ticket price: €4.00
Ljubljana’s SOHO bar, where the music scene keeps getting more colorful, played host to Idrija quintet Divje Jezero, who have been delighting Slovenian music gourmets with their blend of jazz fusion and progressive rock for ten years now. That naturally means they’re celebrating their tenth anniversary this year, and for the occasion they split their set into two parts. Most of the material in the first half of the show, where the acoustics were tuned just right, was based on their second and current album »Pobeg iz blodnjaka/Escape From the Maze« (2017).
The guys from Divje Jezero were in great spirits that night, tossing in a pinch of healthy humor between song intros, and they kicked things off with two tracks from that record, the title song and »Milano«. One of the highlights of the SOHO show was definitely »Marakeška tržnica«, one of their finest achievements, where you could hear some rhythmic influences from Middle Eastern music while we admired the beautifully developed instrumental dynamics between the band members.
The four musicians were in excellent form all evening, which was split into two parts with a short break in between, and that despite a not-so-big crowd (although things have noticeably improved compared to three years ago). Aleš Golja once again proved that he remains an exceptionally eclectic guitarist, who now and then plays around with a witty improvisational flourish. His guitar passages flowed effortlessly between subtlety and punch, which you’ll find in Divje Jezero’s music in just the right amount. David Križaj, meanwhile, kept a careful and highly successful watch over his Rhodes electric piano and eagerly drove the symphonic arrangements of the individual numbers.
The punchy elements of Divje Jezero’s sound also include the switching between the two saxophones and the occasional clarinet courtesy of Tomi Peljhan, who handles some of the key harmonies, and that was the case this evening too. At the SOHO show we were especially blown away by the superb rhythm section duo of bassist Alen Bogataj and drummer Luka Čibej, who is also the author of most of Divje Jezero’s music and arrangements, and who once again played like a well-oiled machine. During the set, the two of them slipped in a short joint solo spot, in which Bogataj in particular had a blast on the extra percussion.
From the older material, meaning the debut »Mestni vrvež« (2015), Divje Jezero wowed us at SOHO with outstanding versions of »Nomad« and »Šnita kruha«, and in the closing stretch of the show we also heard a shortened cover of »Soul Sacrifice«, which Santana recorded way back in 1969. That’s when even the slightly sleepy crowd perked up a bit. Divje Jezero mostly stick to their own material, although in the past they’ve already thrilled us with a live cover of »Stratus«, by the legendary Billy Cobham.
In Divje Jezero’s music, even on the new material, you can pick up plenty of seventies prog rock and jazz fusion influences, as well as echoes of Slovenian bands like September and Izvir, and you can’t miss a few world music influences either, which makes them especially interesting for all fans of experimental music from the “good old days”. Of course, they’re not shy about some more modern sonic influences either, which are just as hard to ignore. The performance by these Idrija instrumental masters wrapped up pretty energetically, with farewell solo spots from every member of the lineup and an invitation to their upcoming gigs later this year.
Divje Jezero won us over at SOHO bar above all with their well-developed musicality, dynamics, tightness and knack for crafting complex yet melodic arrangements, blazing through some of the key pieces from both studio albums they’ve released so far. With their love for an instrumental mix of prog rock and jazz stamped with the seventies, they’re one of the very rare phenomena on the local music scene, so bands of this caliber deserve our support at every opportunity, as much as we possibly can.
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