Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: ELDA Trio
Label: Two Rivers Records
Released: 2016
Rating: 4.5/5
The Swedish musicians, sisters Emilia and Marina Martensson, have been visiting Slovenia a lot lately, since their roots are in Izola. In recent years they’ve played here several times, teaming up with various Slovenian musicians, and also together. This time, though, Emilia joined forces with Slovenian accordionist Janez Dovč and Brazilian percussionist Adriano Adewale, who already guested on her solo album »Ana«. The collision of three musical worlds, each tied to its own homegrown legacy of world music and shaped since forever by the geography where each of those worlds is born, is a guarantee of absolute uniqueness of musical expression right from the starting gate.
All three musicians bring the experience of their earlier work in the musical craft, and none of them knows any limits when it comes to expression. That has resulted in a pile of gorgeous artistic feats they’ve created in the past, and as artists mature over time, they naturally keep reaching for fresh artistic challenges. That’s also the lever for a healthy artistic evolution of every musician in this trio, the phenomenon of constant artistic change that keeps your creative fertility alive. And that’s the basic springboard on which the album »ELDA Trio« was built. Emilia’s voice, with its carefree jazzy variations, keeps exploring and uncovering new and newer melodies of vocal lines, and it would conjure and coax out a noticeable swing in mood wherever it lands. Add the exploring sounds of Dovč’s warm, organic-sounding accordion, which so unpretentiously, almost shyly, strings together delicate pastel backdrops of accompaniment that caress Emilia’s vocals. The pairing of the singer’s voice and Janez Dovč’s accordion really is out of the ordinary, it stirs up artistic eclecticism, and at the same time it sounds incredibly appealing to the ear, in every single moment of this record. The album glows with a rich harvest of captured moods, full of mystique and mysterious longing. Time and again Emilia’s voice is used as an extra instrument, which, combined with the accordion and percussion touches, carries the mood off toward a whole new dimension, as in the closing part of the song Ellis Dreams.
Original compositions by the trio dominate the album. Every compositional move follows the starting vision of the trio, so the album comes across as compact in its expression, yet distinctive in character. »ELDA Trio« is an album with a clear red thread running through it, with a character all its own and the tangible substance of real musical charisma. It’s an album of solid, full-blooded symbiosis where all three basic building blocks of this musical body coexist with incredible tolerance. Complementing each other in perfect harmony of ideas.
So. Ethno. Jazz. Cabaret chanson. Yes. All in one melting pot, with a perfectly unique piece of music as the end result. The trio managed to achieve what matters most. Every element works at its best within the overall soundscape, or rather, manages to express itself at its best through its own effect. Emilia’s vocals, tender, full of gentleness and softness, caressing in color, with a hint of virginal purity, forever yearning, breathing mysticism into every verse, are firmly backed at every moment by the charming sonic makeup of the refined arrangement solutions from the seasoned Dovč, who in this respect surely wrote his doctoral dissertation on his own solo album »AkordeOn« (2015). Into all this material, the effects of Adriano Adewale’s series of percussive subtleties and Dovč’s ornaments of electronic sampling are woven willingly, which not only loosens up the structure of the compositions but also nurtures and strengthens the touch of mysticism, while their presence enriches the distinctive charisma and atmosphere of the songs.
Twelve songs breathe together and sound as one. At the same time, the musical nature of this record opens up a whole host of options for how the trio connects around a chosen (given, arbitrary) motif. That is exactly what gives the album a tinge of spontaneity, of unexpected turns, which, together with a perceptible experimental note, strengthens the pronounced moment of mystical mood and gives this gorgeous record the strong attribute of uniqueness in the world music universe. Let’s hope this album gets a successor someday, sometime.
ELDA Trio – video clips from the concert at Cankarjev dom 2015:
Lineup
Emilia Mårtensson – vocals
Janez Dovč – accordion, electronics
Adriano Adewale – percussion
Production
Chris Hyson
Track list
1. Stone Agaton
2. Winter
3. The Air Holds A Memory
4. Aleksandrinke
5. To The Sun, To The Moon
6. Hon Och Han
7. The Tree
8. Ellis Dream
9. Remembering / Vem Kan Segla
10. I Am Dreaming With You
11. Tillsammans
12. Lobo Guara
