Label: KUD Horse Control
Release date: July 19, 2021
Production: Edenon
Album length: 32.33 min
Genre: Art Rock / Alternative Rock / Alternative Metal
Rating: 9.0/10
Edenon are a band from the Styrian side of Slovenia, though the Savinja corner of it. Celje boys. »Izdih« is their new album, the third one if I’m counting right. The band has been going since 1999, so this is a crew of seasoned, well-oiled players. Still, their original material took a relatively long time to start trickling to the surface. Their debut »Strah pred nespečnostjo« came out in 2016, followed in 2019 by »Oko v črti«. The first two albums slipped past our editorial desk, but a good buddy of mine and a well-known voice on Val 202 got me the third one, »Izdih«, so there’s no dodging the analysis this time. Especially when the cover greets you with an X-ray of a rib cage.
»Izdih« digs deeper into the sonic and stylistic artistry of the band’s previous two releases. It feels especially polished and decisive. As if the band had finally, with »Izdih«, found and nailed down a clear musical direction and recipe, one they can now simply follow and surrender to, relaxed and unpretentious, for the rest of their career. Despite its extremely short running time, just over half an hour, »Izdih« is an incredibly expressive musical manifesto, tightly packed with musical information. With »Izdih«, the band has finally defined its self-made art charisma in a seriously fascinating way. Compared to everything Edenon have done before, that self-made art character is now defined more sharply than ever.
So on »Izdih«, the quartet really shines artistically. They’ve found a musical format marked by eclecticism. »Izdih« is a mix of refined sonic experimentation and a core drive toward musicality that delivers real appeal. This time, very effectively from start to finish. Starting with the intro Deviacija zvezd, which lays down a great atmospheric runway for the rest of the album to take off from. The tracks offer plenty of ideas and arrangement variety, along with a clear message that only the Edenon camp could come up with something like this.
The driving force in the band is above all the incredibly sharp guitarist Mladen Kalinić, who clearly has it all figured out. On the album he shows off an outstanding arsenal, not just of musical knowledge and guitar chops, but also of insight and creative resourcefulness, even sparkle. It’s amazing how he uses the sonic space with such filigree tricks of sound experimentation. These are short, tight, supple and relaxed touches, dropped into the arrangements in just the right places, which is what gives the record its extraordinary atmospheric grip. The guitarist’s performance is a collection of diverse sonic manipulations of the guitar, including looping and programming, which gives the band’s musical nature its essential uniqueness. It’s precisely these veils and curtains and the interwoven sound structures that give the album its art pedigree, meaning it takes a bit longer to uncover than your average Slovenian alternative-rock-based record.
»Izdih« doesn’t lack gloom, theatricality, or even pompous solemnity. Then there’s the song Vonj. Definitely the album’s peak. The peak of its artistic daring. With a pile of unpredictable detours running through the bulk of the composition, which hints at its wildness, its untamable, elusive nature. A ‘distorted’, accusing vocal, added »gang shouts« (extra choir shouts), hopelessly dark trembling, a guitar behaving in a distinctly exploratory way. In just under four minutes, Vonj develops almost progressively. This song is defined by constant arrangement escalation and a brilliantly woven series of motif twists.
Every song on »Izdih« is its own self-contained story. And that’s the guarantee of the album’s lasting appeal, since it serves up a variety that surprises and keeps you busy as you listen. Edenon can be counted among alternative rock and alternative metal, but with a strong footing in their self-made art approach, which at times also flirts with a search for pop accessibility, easily giving the band a shot at rotation on the airwaves of Slovenia’s more prominent radio stations (Monokrom, Pridi greva spat). The band can also lay down a massive phrase that hits harder, ‘metalized’ (Prvi svit), then in the very next moment serve up balladic, esoteric suppleness in the fragile, floating Rojstvo bližine, where they also make skillful use of the keyboards. A special detour is the closing Pa kaj!, which with its different arrangement style, acoustic sound and added »Dylanesque« touches (harmonica) brilliantly »unhitches« from the artistic content of the rest of the album, and after a good half hour gets the listener to hit »play« again on their player without a second thought.
It’s more than obvious that Edenon, who had already signaled in the past that they’re a band worth keeping an eye on, found with »Izdih« exactly what they were looking for on the previous two albums, and what every band is supposed to find in itself. Through natural evolution. The thing that goes by the name of their own art expressionism. »Izdih« is by far the most mature Edenon album to date, and the band can now lean back, relaxed, into the character of the new album’s artistic expression and, from here on, hand themselves over, completely unpretentiously and freely, to new creative challenges. It’s clear that, even with the changed lineup on the new album, Edenon now come across much better.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Deviacija zvezd (Intro)
2. Monokrom
3. Prvi svit
4. Rojstvo bližine
5. November
6. Pridi, greva spat
7. Vonj
8. Rojstvo tišine
9. Pa kaj!
Lineup:
Mihael Lajlar – vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica
Mladen Kalinić – electric guitar, backing vocals
Dušan Knežević – bass guitar
Mitja Ritlop – drums, synth pads, piano, backing vocals
Guest musicians:
Zvezdana Novaković – vocals on track 3
Daniel Lajnar – voice on track 5
