Label: Club2 Records
Release date: March 13, 2023
Production: Jernej Križič (track 1), Uwe Bossert (tracks 2, 3 and 9), Denis Horvat (track 4), Dominik Bagola – Balladero (tracks 5, 6 and 7), Enos Kugler (tracks 6 and 7), Martin Štibernik (track 8), Žan Serčič (tracks 10 and 11)
Album length: approx. 42 min.
Genre: Singer / Songwriter (Art Pop/Pop Rock)
Rating: 9.0/10
Balladero, or more precisely Dominik Bagola, a singer-songwriter from Prekmurje and, years back, the drummer of the far-too-briefly-lived alternative rockers Psycho-Path, put out his third solo studio album earlier this year. “Neon Srce” took seven years to follow its predecessor “Perfect You” from 2016 (sung in English).
It moves in a direction Dominik had quietly been expected to take: further into pop rock territory, though one that’s wrapped, at its core, in the expressive codes of our corner of the world. For the new album Dominik brought in a whole string of seasoned, battle-hardened musicians who also know their way around the studio faders. Given what the two excellent previous studio albums deliver, and the level of media recognition he’s fought for over the years as a singer-songwriter, it was clear Balladero wouldn’t be easing off on anything. There’s only one vision: how to artistically build on the musical substance of the previous two albums.
Balladero is a finely chiseled musician, a very refined composer with an internalized feel for building a song so that it – as a composition – gradually grabs you and crawls under your skin. He pulls that off with flying colors again on the new album, which is at the same time sonically lavish and open, constantly drawing you in with the lovely organic warmth of its (dynamic and lively) production, where the contrasting build-up of sonic elements and the arrangement-level fullness of how they all fit together are masterfully on display. The album features a heap of top-tier Slovenian musicians who’ve earned a high reputation and recognition over the years. It’s just proof that the number one focus in recording “Neon srce” was perfectionism in delivering the musical substance, so that it offers the very best. That’s why “Neon srce” was recorded in several studios. At home and abroad.
The opener Marelice quickly makes the listener realize that Balladero is simply a special kind of musical artist. A one-of-a-kind. Even when you put him in a stripped-down, ‘undressed’ cabaret position. As a ‘one man band’. Just a piano, plus his voice of course. That’s enough, and that uniqueness shines through all ten tracks of the new album, which was also the core goal of its production. Balladero is lucky enough to have a recognizable vocal tone. Add to that the always endearing accent on his Slovenian lines, which keeps reminding you that Dominik hails from the Prekmurje corner of Slovenia (which, among Prekmurje musicians, hasn’t been anything special for years – it’s more like a standard by now, but a welcome one, since it’s one of the foundations of developing a character of your own). “Neon srce” showcases Dominik’s singer-songwriter charisma in this ‘one man band’ mode in exactly this way in the closer Ponesi me.
Even though “Neon srce” sounds very accessible – and that was its aim too – you can clearly pick up a pile of ‘tricks’ and sleights of hand beneath the surface, including musical modulations that steer the songs a touch differently than the average listener’s ear would expect, which is a necessary artistic maneuver. With it, artists don’t just keep themselves busy, they keep their audience busy too (and here we’re back at the heart of the matter). That maneuver is especially necessary because it somehow rules out the slide into dreary, chewed-over, generic reheating of cheap tricks that might pave an easier road to the charts. In terms of artistic weight, that would never satisfy an artist like Balladero. The guy is truly backed by a master crew, with which “Neon srce” reaches a real art pop character of remarkable maturity. The integration of the inserts over the motifs occasionally flirts with a playful jazzy touch too, which is just one of the tricks from the seasoned masters that Balladero skillfully makes use of across many parts of the new album. And that gratefully placed him in his own artistic one-of-a-kind spot on both of his past studio efforts as well. The feel of cabaret charm is less intense than you’d expect given the previous two studio works, but given the musical vision that drove the production of “Neon srce”, that’s actually welcome. The shift toward a variation of art pop with its own expressive charisma is more pronounced than ever. The flirtation with pop rhetoric is turned up and surely peaks in the track Verjet, though there are plenty more candidates for heavy rotation on “Neon srce”. One such moment is the chanson-tinged Še živim, with cunningly layered strings in the background and a striking duet with Jadranka Juras.
“Neon srce” is an excellent record that bends under its sonic and arrangement fullness (with a well-crafted mid-eight ‘nomenclature’ that, if anything, magnifies the build-up of moods on the compact verse-chorus relationship), while at the same time keeping Balladero’s expressive singer-songwriter range in sharp focus and dead center throughout. The new album is a step up in maturity in cultivating his artistry. It wins you over with its lightness, yet also with its depth and breadth in arrangement and sound. Albums carried by production skill like “Neon srce” should be shaping and representing the Slovenian radio “mainstream”. With the musical vision of the new album, Balladero has deepened his artistic charisma and chiseled it out even more.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Marelice
2. Potujem
3. Najina
4. Ukradla si mi srce
5. Še živim
6. V tvojih očeh
7. Glej me, sanjam
8. Toplo
9. Verjet
10. Drugačen svet
11. Ponesi me
Lineup:
Dominik Bagola Balladero – vocals, piano, keyboards, guitar on track 5, drums on track 5
Guest musicians:
Jadranka Juras – vocals on track 5
Branko Brezavšček – viola, violin on track 5
Daniel Bogataj – violin on track 7
Zsofi Klacsmann – violin on track 11
Kristijan Krajnčan – cello on track 5
Peter Koša – cello on track 11
Bilka Peršič – harp on track 7
Amadej Herzog – accordion on track 6
Peter Dekleva – guitar on track 1
Lorenzo Corti – guitar on tracks 1 and 6
Aljoša Bagola – guitar on track 2
Uwe Bossert – guitar on tracks 3 and 9, bass guitar on track 9
Denis Horvat – guitar, Hammond organ and percussion on track 4
Teo Collori – guitar on track 4
Urban Zotel – guitar on track 5
Jani Moder – guitar on track 7
Martin Štibernik – guitar on track 8, bass guitar on track 8, Rhodes keyboards on track 8
Žan Serčič – guitar, additional keyboards and programming on tracks 10 and 11
Jernej Kržič – bass guitar on track 1
Lucas Fernandez – bass guitar on tracks 2 and 3
Miha Koren – bass guitar on track 4
Robert Jukič – bass guitar on track 5
Anže Langus Petrovič – bass guitar on tracks 6 and 7
Ash Soan – drums on track 1
Florian “Flo” Schanze – drums on tracks 2 and 3
David Morgan – drums on track 4
Enos Kugler – drums, percussion on tracks 6 and 7 and additional keyboards on track 6
Bobby MacIntyre – snare drum, percussion and vibraphone on track 7
Jože Bogolin – timpani on track 5
