Author: Sandi Sadar Šoba
Venue: Hostel Celica, AKC Metelkova, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Concert date: 30.07.2013
Attendance: 100
Ticket price: free admission
After something as extraordinary as this year’s HISTeRIA festival, it’s only natural that you take a good while to come back down to earth and can’t find a substitute strong enough to fill the hole in your heart, soul and ears in one go, and for longer than a moment. Musicians of all stripes, the ones who gave the Gračišče fairy tale not just its sound but also its faces, its recognizability, its name and its high gloss of quality, know full well that it got under everyone’s skin. So a piece of the Istrian soul had to be carried further, beyond that magical little forest somewhere in Slovenian Istria that heals aching souls. After the festival a big picture started building in my mind, a mosaic of impressions, and among the mightier, stronger, more resonant and more beautiful ones was without a doubt the performance by the Ljubljana duo of exceptional guitarists Aritmija with a very special and truly exceptional guest, Nika Solce. The virtuosic interplay of two acoustic yet seriously punchy Spanish-Balkan, all-over-the-world jazzy guitars, which in the hands of Tilen Stepišnik and Šemsudin Džopa lift the flames of hypnotic passion up to the sky, and above all Nika’s honeyed voice – all of this demanded a new soulful follow-up. What stuck in my memory were the clear outlines of a sensual game between two guitars, conjuring up the magic of a whole world in miniature with every bar, while in the condensed harmonies the associative world of the great trio weaves itself together: flamenco virtuoso Paco de Lucia, jazz mastermind John McLaughlin and fast-fingered technician Al di Meola, along with the elfin voice of the Balkan vestal, the remarkable Nika Solce. Since time allowed it, this time I consciously skipped the opening explosion of Trnfest, where the exceptional Demolition Group left the first mark, in order to calibrate my soul to more refined frequencies. No need to add that expectations were high.
And not just mine, because the Celica garden was packed, and besides prominent Slovenian musicians there was no shortage of a colorful bunch of tourists from all over the world either. I’ll admit that until recently I hadn’t followed ethno music all that closely, and I don’t consider myself a real connoisseur of these rhythms and melodies seasoned with tradition, heritage and ancient beats. Even so, I got hooked on the resonance of passion, the echo of the past, and above all the high level of performance served up to us by the bringers of pleasure on this Tuesday evening. No big processions, no big announcements: at the appointed hour the bald-headed Dino (damn, he reminds me of Satriani, I think) sat down on one of the empty chairs, dark-haired Tilen took the seat next to him, and the two picked up their guitars. The opening touch of the strings and a flawlessly executed arpeggio wove a thick veil of Taire, and with it the two lads set off on a timeless trip down the street and raised a gorgeous obelisk dedicated to street artists. A mixture of flamenco, rhythm and repeating phrases that bring to mind the exceptional trio of Paco De Lucia, John McLaughlin and Al Di Meola and their legendary acoustic concert immortalized on the record Friday Night In San Francisco … But on stage there are just two very talented young guys devoted to music, who live and feel rhythm and melody and let them loose without restraint, and the steel strings of their electro-acoustic guitars are merely the medium through which they fire the spikes of their otherworldly presence, virtuosity and hunger for big experiments and leaps into the unknown out into the world. The sound is superb, better than at the Gračišče gig, though at moments you can still feel a certain tension, a respect bordering on awe for the Ljubljana crowd, which got near-flawless technical execution that was only the overture to a beautiful evening. Elfin, delicate Nika Solce steps up to the mic and leads us to the cracked peaks of Šar Planina. Raspukala Šar Planina is a traditional Macedonian song that I previously knew mostly in a more masked sonic guise by Leb i sol, but this time, instead of funky jazz, we get something closer to the roots. The 7/8 rhythm, with its lovely Slavic asymmetry, conjures up the peaks of the Šar mountains and serves as the backdrop that gorgeous details cling to. First come two refined guitars that aren’t as cheerful as in some Macedonian versions, and I actually think it’s even better that way, since the story of three shepherds earning their hard, merciless bread on the summits of a rugged mountain is closer to a lament, a plea to mighty nature, and it’s precisely this that Nika complements in a truly refined, slightly rustling and magically soft way.
We stay in the land of the oro, as the Aritmija duo and Nika play the traditional Macedonian song Uči me majko, karaj me, a tune that the fingers of the great Vlatko Stefanovski have also put their stamp on in the past. Here, though, two acoustic guitars prove an even tastier tool, making the rhythm even prettier, while the melodic slides glide straight to the center of the soul and heart. That’s also thanks to the gentle, unobtrusive, refined voice of Nika, entranced in a trance-like fusion with the soul of the Balkans. Right up to the final fading note the patient audience rewards the exceptional stage chemistry with thunderous applause, and Nika leaves the stage for a short while to the maestros Tilen and Dino. The acoustic, heart-piercing beauty of Pri izviru conjures up the pearly babbling of a spring, where a lovely young girl reaches in with a clay jug and eagerly scoops up cold, clear water, bathed in the glow of the lazy morning sun. Gentle rhythm, slowed-down images and two passionate guitars that sound as if at least three guitarists were on stage, and then Aritmija return to Macedonian meter with an excellent guitar rework of Dino Murtezani’s Ples lastovk, which lacks nothing despite the absence of the Kosovar flute from the original. Then a little more Al Di Meola feeling and Paco Lucia in an original ramble across the Iberian expanses with the temperamental En La Calle. The advantage of Duo Aritmija over academics weighed down by schooling is that the lads have plenty of theory in their heads, but their fingers and the unfolding of the songs aren’t dictated by the brain, rather by two hearts that are so alike yet separate. So within a single song, besides flamenco, there are moments of jazz, blues, Gypsy soul, the Balkans, Spain, outlines of Córdoba. Freed from formal commandments and limits, the two guitar-wielding men firmly, though not harshly, lay bricks of perfection into the evening air.
Despite all the guitar perfection, though, this evening I’m even more taken with the vocal softness of the third member of this story-rich night. Tilen and Dino once played Okladi se momče i djevojče beautifully together with the sevdah-obsessed Sedef, but this time, instead of Maša Pašovič’s ringing voice, blonde sorceress Nika gives it a slightly more Balkan-Celtic color. After a detour to Serbia with Mesečina I experience another revelation of the beauty of the Balkans, where we stay until the end of the ecstatic evening. The livelier Macedonian song Bre Vodeničare, with its list of oro dances, prepares the ground for the sensual sevdah of Bosnian poignancy in Snijeg pade na behar na voće, to which Nika and Aritmija breathe an even more sensual soul than many before, and I think of the ringing, resonant, passionate and unaffected honesty of Mostar Sevdah Reunion, whom I heard not long ago. Sevdah is music for loving, feeling, crying, laughing, dancing and rapture, and with this level of perfection from the givers of sevdah this time, you forget where the performers are from geographically and believe you’ve been beamed straight into the heart of Bosnia. As the grand finale, Moj dilbere wafts out of the speakers, a traditional Bosnian song professing honest love for life, God and existence, and Nika’s vocals send the entire Celica audience, completely devoted and dedicated to the music, off into a state of total rapture.
All dolled up and full of impressions, after a short number by a dancer devoted to fire, with flames from faraway Japan, we were treated to one more offering. Onto the stage came Jararaja violinist Vasilij Centrih, percussionist Malindi Morris, whom we were able to hear and feel at the HISTeRIA festival during the performance of Waziz, and both Aritmija guys. Nika and the exceptional singer Brina approach the stage from the side, and the journey into the unknown closes into a cosmic whole with an outstanding jam session. Piperkovo oro sheds the old garb of “classic Aritmija” and becomes a space for playing around, modulation and complete shamanic surrender to the rhythm. Vasilij complements both guitars with the soulful substrate of Jararaja, and Brina’s vocals drift off into the unknown with the verses of Sijaj sijaj sončece. Whispers, the rustle of ringing vocals, rhythm and total improvisation that nonetheless sounds thoroughly rehearsed all unfold in a completely new direction once the elfin vestal Nika Solce adds a piece of Balkan meter to the Macedonian-Slovenian picture. After another kiss between the Iberian Peninsula and the Balkans I can say with certainty that we Slovenes, whatever the affected yearnings for Venetic roots, are bound in essence, hearts and soulful differential to a pan-Slavic, Gypsy, rhapsodic and utterly non-Germanic patch of earth. The softness and duet of two hypnotic singers, violin and guitars fill the vaults of Celica, and time and space become totally irrelevant. The lyrics became something to play with, add to and carve up, while rhythm and melody became a space for group meditation. After the complete fusion of the opening dance, my time unfortunately ran out, and obligations called, so I had to leave Celica, which was surrendering to a new dictate of perfection. But from what I managed to feel, hear and see, the evening came very close to the real magic of Gračišče, which I’d gone looking for. My heart got a good dose of calm, and the perfect contact between the Balkans and the Iberian Peninsula, which I once wrote about before, becomes a new world I’m happy to return to. I’m starting to believe that the magical Gračišče forest fling has grown into a love for life. Also thanks to the naturalness, the excellence and the brilliant chemistry between Aritmija and the meditatively addictive Nika Solce.
Setlist
1. Taira
2. Šar planina
3. Uči me majko karaj me
4. Pri izviru
5. Ples lastovk
6. En la calle
7. Okladi se momče i djevojče
8. Mesečina
9. Bre vodeničare
10. Snijeg pade na behar na voće
11. Dilbere
JAM SESSION:
1. Piperkovo oro
2. Ne si go prodavat koljo
3. Bal canis
4. Beli grad
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