AkordeON

Author: Aleš Podbrežnik

Artist: Dovč, Janez
Label: Celinka
Released: 2015
Length: 48:44
Rating: 4.5/5

Janez Dovč has been one of the most creative musical artists in Slovenia in recent years. He’s everywhere (and it’s still not enough). A musician who gradually forged and grew into a top-notch songwriter and solo performer, he first made a name for himself in the bands Terrafolk and Jararaja. His first solo release only followed in 2008, when he recorded the album Filharmonika: Janez Dovč & Orkester Slovenske filharmonije (Slovenska filharmonija). On top of numerous guest appearances and active collaborations across many musical projects, he’s put out two more seriously interesting releases in the past two years. The first is a project called Baraka, where he joined forces with tuba player Goran Krmac and percussionist Nino Mureškič, and the second is »Pomladne sanje«, made together with singer Brina Vogelnik.

»AkordeON« is a hugely ambitious album that puts the accordion in a special spot in the musical universe, one far removed from what we usually get from an everyday encounter with the instrument, which in Slovenia has always come with a mandatory folk label attached. While delivering fresh ideas and shaping them, Dovč leaned heavily on sound manipulation. With it, he built contrasts of harmony, created a rhythmic foundation, and added shimmering sound effects. In short, programming in a situation like this is an immense kind of fun, one that inspires and teases at the same time when you attack it with the zeal of a researcher experimenting. Absolutely everything you hear on this album comes from one and the same instrument, the accordion. The one exception is the occasional coloring of the arrangements with vocals that act as an extra instrument (no lyrics). So »AkordeON« is an entirely instrumental album.

Besides his unsuspected musical talents, Dovč is also a very skilled and handy »handy man«, and his background in physics, which he studied, gives him a solid foundation for it. The guy has been experimenting with electronic effects on the accordion for the past few years, and his new studio album is best linked to the Baraka project, where he first tried out this technique of delivering musical ideas in a more concrete way.

For all the experimentation, the album carries an exceptional musicality. It sounds soft and refined, and it has a self-made, homegrown stamp on it. The musical dossier the album represents is made up of elements of electronic music, world music, and jazz, and almost every track could easily be used as a film soundtrack.

The accordion is often fitted out with extra sound effects, which gratefully widen the depth of the sonic picture and color the vividly contrasting soundscape itself. The basic motif is harmonized with extra »sub-harmonies« that thicken the soundscape of each track. A heap of echoing, minimalistically shaped sounds surrounds the core of the lead melodies and is present on the album is with us. In the sonic softness of their lead motifs, the tracks are lured in almost cerebrally. You can drift off with them far beyond the rational, easily. They take you to a state of mental rapture, a disconnect of consciousness. If you dare to let yourself go, that is.

Because the album is distinctly melodic, you can listen to it at literally any moment of the day or in any situation your »humble« everyday life throws at you. Given Dovč’s refined, holistic approach to shaping the look of the tracks and his unsuspectedly deft experimentation, the album still comes across as broadly accessible and incredibly likable even on a  listen »straight out of the gate«. The atmosphere is exploratively spread out, often melancholic, but also awakening and optimistic. The tracks are mostly calm, though there’s definitely a cheeky little stomper in there too, like the track at position no. 5 Schrödingerjeva mačka, which served Dovč as the album’s first single.

On »AkordeON«, Janez Dovč put absolutely everything in its right place. All the building blocks sit and coexist on the album in a one-of-a-kind symbiosis, and the record isn’t overloaded with any single element, nor does it need anything added. It’s an exceptionally beautiful, holistically shaped, finished, and artistically mature album that sounds unusual and therefore irresistibly appealing. It comes across as original, unique, and incredibly confident. It’ll be interesting to watch where Janez Dovč heads next in the field of discovering the still undiscovered in music. The path he’s chosen is incredibly attractive, and new challenges keep opening up for him along it. Let’s hope he takes them on. 

Lineup

Janez Dovč – accordion, programming

Production

Iztok Turk & Janez Dovč

Tracklist