Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Tolmin / Kinogledališče / Slovenia
Concert date: 08.01.2017
Attendance: 800
Bakalina are the duo of Renata Lapanja and Jani Kutin. At the end of last year they released their fourth studio album together, titled »Španabije«. Going by the duo’s name alone, it’s safe to assume that Bakalina draw their inspiration from the traditional folk melos that has drifted for centuries over the peaks above Tolmin, and their songs come strictly with lyrics brewed from the authentic spoken Čadrg dialect.
Bakalina are true local stars. Everybody there knows them. They first sold out their Tolmin show scheduled for 10.01.2017, and given the incredible demand from the folks, they added another date on top of that, Sunday 8.1.2017, which at Tolmin’s Kinogledališče was also completely sold out. So what on earth brought RockLine, which swears by rock and roll and metal in its tagline, to that corner of the country for this particular gig? Simple. A musical oddity, you could even call it musical exotica. With the album »Španabije«, compared to their three studio predecessors, Bakalina are knocking on the door of a new kind of arranging, which brings to the surface a hugely interesting and varied piece of work. A richer product in terms of arrangement and composition, whose message (the poetry) is now amplified far more substantially, beyond Renata’s accordion and Jani’s vocals, by other building blocks of a richer and creatively even more challenging musical content. A whole bunch of guests took part on the album, and on stage Renata and Jani tried to recreate in the most authentic manner what the current record captures. The record itself was also made on the principle of separate live performances. Every song on the album was played live at a different location, depending on the point of the message within it.
So Bakalina decided to play the whole new studio album »Španabije« front to back. That meant special guests rotated on stage from song to song. A demanding project, since getting all the musicians to the same place at the same hour is like drumming up an army. In that respect, Bakalina actually proved themselves an unbelievably successful management team. The whole thing was pulled off with just a few minimal adjustments. For example, Janez Škof (Čiompe) was replaced on accordion for one song by Rok Šinkovec, who after performing the song Španabije with Bakalina plus Brencl Banda stayed on stage for one more number, Kanc sveta. Jani accompanied this with a cheeky remark that Rok had mastered the material in a few days, which took Janez a lot longer (the latter was reportedly in Klagenfurt on business that day, so his absence was excused), which drew the first big wave of decibels in laughter back from the audience.
The whole concert, in fact, unfolded in a playful and cheeky atmosphere, with Jani entertaining the packed-to-the-rafters Kinogledališče with his sense of humor. A heartfelt thank-you followed to the maestro Dejan Lapanja during the song Pomlad, when Dejan jumped on stage as a special guest and played acoustic guitar. Dejan also produced Bakalina’s new, fourth album, and given the far more ambitious scope of the project, he burned through a lot more energy and good nerves on it.
The album presentation ran at an extremely high energy level of palpably authentic vibes the whole way through. Of course it did, since Bakalina are a total one-off in the Slovenian music scene. Still, a few of the stronger and especially piercing moments of the concert deserve a mention. The first came soon enough, when Accordion Group 4-8-8-16 joined Bakalina on stage and they performed, given the brutal honesty of the song’s powerful original message, a downright »national awakening« Pagreb Europe. The second such moment, really a moment that lifted the weight of all the cruel truth we’d started to feel during Pagreb Europe, worked in the complete opposite way. The song Krawji rep, for which the incredible Mitja Roner came on stage, and about whom Jani said it’s a mystery what they fed him when he was a kid. The man really looked on stage like he’d swallowed Goran Krmac’s tuba. Not only the hilarious lyrics but Jani’s comments before and after the performance had the crowd roaring with laughter that was hard to calm down. The peak, right at the end of the show, came with the songs Pisma, where Andrea Pandolfo on flugelhorn (who also stayed on stage for the song Ko se je dielu sviet) and the Kobariški oktet Simona Gregorčiča added their seasoning. Moving. A tear-jerking last confession of Slovenian boys from the Isonzo front. As a peak, it also rocked out properly toward the end, when the band closed the concert with the excellent Ko se je dielu sviet. For this occasion Salamandra salamandra stood on stage alongside Bakalina. Dejan Lapanja sat behind the drums this time, and the excellent guitarist Matej Magajne (Feedback, Poltrona Express) seasoned the outro of the song with a gorgeous, melancholic guitar solo on his red semi-acoustic guitar (two “f-holes”).
Unforgettable. Sensual in its expression and piercing in its effect on the listener at every single moment. That evening, Bakalina and their musical friends stirred up all kinds of feelings and emotions in the audience. Minds opened, awareness widened and grew stronger. It’s incredible what art can do in music. It doesn’t get more authentic than this. A concert I’m begging you from the bottom of my heart to catch when you get the chance. It will wake you up and renew you. From the inside out. Your soul and your body.
Bakalina (plus Accordion Group 4-8-8-16) – Pagreb Europe:
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