On Monday, April 16, 2018, Alan Jakin, a former member of Nova Gorica art rock champions Avtomobili, passed away after a serious illness. He was one of the most distinctive guitarists around, and his playing and approach left a lasting mark on Slovenian and Yugoslav rock’n’roll alike.
Alan Jakin (first from the left in the photo) always floored people on the Slovenian music scene with his sophistication and layered expressive craft, in his phrasing as much as in his inventively woven solos, all of it carrying real emotional depth. He joined Avtomobili in 1987. His arrival kicked off the most fruitful chapter of the band’s career, and between 1988 and 2006 Jakin put out the albums “Krenimo” (1988), “Mraz” (1992), “Skozi leta” (1994), “Drugi svet” (1995), “Navaden dan” (1997), “Enakonočje” (2000) and “Mesta železniških postaj” (2006) with Avtomobili. In 1998 he also appeared on the compilation “Največji zadetki”. During those years he helped the band create a heap of unforgettable hits that became Slovenian rock evergreens and big crowd favorites at gigs.
Jakin was already active in the seventies, when he put out two studio albums with the bands Go and Jutro. With the legendary Jutro he recorded the album “Mozart” (1975), and four years later he released “Igra se igra” with Go. Alongside Go, he later founded the band Era in the early eighties. He was also active as part of the backing bands of Zoran Predin, Miran Rudan and Tomaž Domicelj.
Avtomobili released the album “Mesta železniških postaj” in 2006, and right after that Alan Jakin had to leave the band because of health problems. Boštjan Andrejc-Bushy took his place.
Who Alan Jakin was, what his work meant for Slovenian rock’n’roll and just how distinctive his guitar playing was might be best captured in a passage from the RockLine review of the album “Mesta železniških postaj” (2006), which stands as Jakin’s musical epitaph:
“Mesta železniških postaj” is Alan Jakin’s finest hour! He is one of the most outstanding, expressively charismatic, creatively sharpest and most sophisticated guitarists Slovenia has ever produced in the history of rock music. With his arrival on the album »Krenimo«, the band was able to make a striking evolutionary leap to a higher expressive level in the second half of the eighties, and Alan Jakin’s layered mastery allowed the band to keep maturing artistically and building on its sound, right up to and including the album »Mesta železniških postaj«.” (Aleš Podbrežnik, 10/7/2012)
Just how timeless Alan’s guitar is also comes through in the song Oblaki (from the album “Mesta železniških postaj”, 2006), which you can listen to below.
“Rest in peace, Alan. We’ve still got some “Nekaj let” ahead of us, so we’ll hang around down here a little longer. Your guitar and your music stay with us, an eternal shine on the road through our everyday lives, until the day we join you too (the RockLine editorial team, Ljubljana, April 18, 2018)”.
