Label: Klopotec
Release date: June 2018
Album length: 47.33 min
Production: Miha Ocvirk
Genre: Jazz
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Last year Aleš Rendla put out his second solo studio album, “Sanjarije”. It dropped around last year’s Ljubljana Jazz Festival, in June, which is also where he started playing it out in front of audiences in a bigger way. This is a drummer who’s a big name in Slovenian jazz, whose colorful musical journey winds back to the distant eighties and has, over the years, been one long string of collaborations with colorful figures of the Slovenian jazz scene, the ones we can count as the so-called Slovenian jazz elite. The memories of Quatebrig and Begnagrad stay unforgettable (they couldn’t be anything else, being memories and all :)) — two bands of incredible new-wave jazz insight and wit that thrilled people back then with their eclectic musical vibe and offbeat direction. From the brilliant Bratko Bibič all the way to Milko Lazar, and everyone in between. Membership in the Big Band RTV Slovenija, collaborations with Mia Žnidarič, Fake Orchestra,… in short, Rendla “has seen it all”, or rather, there’s very little substance in jazz that has stayed hidden from him to this day, if any. Rendla is, in other words, a heavyweight drummer and jazz figure in Slovenia.
The second studio album delivers a fairly framed, playful jazz romp with a hefty helping of tangible musical structures, more of a sticking-to-the-main-motifs kind of deal, which the seasoned guard of jazz players, with their craftsmanlike finesse, of course liven up in a thoroughly pleasing, wise and witty way, which makes “Sanjarije” a very fitting companion for an afternoon unwind with a cup of tea or coffee.
It has the required sense of liveliness and, really, that sought-after feel of organic-ness, which means it was played and recorded in the studio the way a live show would be, “in one take”. The chemical tightness the crew creates in the firmly woven bonds between the building blocks of the soundscape, in the symbiosis they’ve built with each other, is more than outstanding and enviable.
This crew of exceptional musicians weaves a colorful and enviably rich sonic tapestry, where, as said, firm motif structure and solo adventures join hands in an extremely agreeable way. All of it occasionally gravitates almost more toward the realm of modal jazz than anything that would smell of chasing “uncharted horizons”, eclecticism or even the avant-garde. The track Strahomer (probably named after the marshland village in the municipality of Ig) is a more interesting moment of searching for escapes into the world of adventurism that the jazz universe offers. Given what a career long-hauler and what a multilayered, expressive drummer Aleš Rendla can be in his performances, you’d actually wish for more of the unusual, the punchy and the witty pranks, but still. The album “Sanjarije” shows great maturity and compositional traceability in its tightly structured arranging. Everything sits in the right doses on the record and coexists in an agreeable balance. The wind instruments take up a somewhat more central position, perhaps because of the bulk of the solos coaxed out by the (bass) clarinet, saxophones and/or trumpet, and the album (as you’d expect) carries noticeable world-music elements (Hoola Loops – a track that’s also backed by one of the most interesting rhythmic keys on the record). On the other hand, precisely thanks to the wind contributions, in places it also evokes a distant sentiment of the good old school of bebop. The gentle and mystical Valček z Marto feels like it was inspired by Erik Satie’s Gymnopédie No.1.
“Sanjarije” is an exceptionally polished and boldly structured piece of work that only confirms the incredible experience and maturity of Aleš Rendla, as well as of the top-notch crew of jazz players involved. It’s a skillfully arranged jazz album. The contributions of individual players are still concrete and emphasized. That sparkles not only in the moments when they go for solo moves, but simply, these musicians radiate their personal, expressive stamp very clearly even in the parts of the songs where they’re just adding color and contrast to the landscape. All in all, an exceptionally beautiful jazz album, and really an elegant culmination of the maturity of all the knowledge, experience and skill picked up along the musical road of one of the greatest drum masters in Slovenian jazz.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
rating: 8.5 / 10
Track list:
1. Not So Clear Anymore
2. A New Beginning
3. Strahomer
4. Time Twist
5. Valček z Marto – Waltzing with Marta
6. Hoola Loops
7. DADA
8. Breakfast with Dominik
9. Sanjivani
10. Proti soncu proti morju
Lineup:
Aleš Rendla – drums, percussion, programming
Primož Fleishman – tenor and soprano saxophone
Aljaž Rendla – clarinet, bass clarinet, guitar, “log guitar”
Rebeka Zajc – keyboards
Jošt Drašler – double bass
Nino de Gleria – double bass on track no. 4, bass guitar on track no. 3
Dominik Kranjčan – trumpet on tracks 8 and 9.
