Self-released
Release date: 12. 11. 2024
Production: Peter Penko, Igor Ilić & Borut Antončič
Album length: 36.04 min
Genre: Alternative Rock / Indie Rock / Pop Rock
Rating: 8.0/10
Ember are a Slovenian band from Šentjernej. The Dolenjska one, near Kostanjevica na Krki. That corner of the country is known for plenty of excellent musicians, composers and producers who strengthen the rock’n’roll image of the region and, with their creativity and drive, give it a stamp of its own when you set it next to Slovenia’s other regions. Ember only served up their debut »Razgaljena« this year, but this is a quartet of seasoned players who have been working together for years. The band spent a long time as a trio, but in the middle of last year it grew into a quartet, which, among other things, gives it a bigger dose of stage dynamite.
The band is marked by that sweet melancholy that pushes alternative rock foundations into pop rock waters, aiming for the radio airwaves and hoping to anchor itself in the Slovenian radio mainstream. So this is an album with a style you’d kind of expect from the Dolenjska region, let’s call it a typical representative. There are 10 tracks. They’re cunningly polished. Simple, they crawl into your ear fast, and the guys know that holy simplicity is a true blessing, the embodiment of the ‘less is more’ axiom. The message in vocalist Davor Vovko’s lyrics is woven into the melancholic character of the rock musicality, which gratefully amplifies how far that message reaches.
Even though Ember can, with a debut like this, immediately and without beating around the bush boast a high level of excellent production and arrangement polish, and a runtime of a good 36 minutes that never loses momentum or listenability, there’s still room on the album that could be built on in the future. That includes, among other things, the heavy overdoing of chorus repetitions in the track Sam, which quickly gets annoying. But it’s an isolated case on the album, fittingly in tune with its title (Sam). Otherwise, the album reflects the long history of its making: within the fairly narrow expressive mold of the musical recipe it lives in, it reaches a high level of arrangement variety and ideas, which means it doesn’t bore and keeps drawing you in attractively throughout. The songs are structured so that they hit an emotional crescendo in the chorus, which, among other things, gives the album an excellent platform for live performance, since songs like these ignite even more convincingly on stage. That’s a great starting point (looking at the band’s whole career).
»Razgaljena« is a nice first step, and let’s hope more follow. But there’s a catch. The songs on the debut have a worked-out character because, as said, they came together over a longer stretch of time. Each one is its own story of long artistic polishing, and as mentioned, that’s why this album reaches a breadth of artistic variety that its successor will have a hard time matching and surpassing. So it’ll be interesting to follow the continuing career of this very good and talented lineup, who can be openly proud of their debut album!
For a quick orientation on what we’re talking about, even though it’s a hugely thankless task, since every pair of ears takes in musical magic in its own way, I’ll throw out a rough (and ‘off the cuff’) comparison: the artistry of classic Dan D, plus of course the influence of indie rock like Coldplay, all working as an inspiring seasoning that only reveals itself in the background while you listen, something the band may well grow closer to someday with maturing and hard work.
Track list:
1. Ni zadelo me
2. Cukr
3. Razgaljena
4. Sam
5. Katarza
6. Enosmerna
7. Merlot
8. Stotič že
9. Pepel
10. Zdaj
Lineup:
Davor Vovko – vocals, guitar, backing vocals
Jan Poreber – guitar (tracks 1, 3, 7, 8, 10)
Jakob Fifnja – guitar (tracks 2, 4, 9)
Nejc Hodnik – bass guitar, backing vocals
Nik Švalj Pleskovič – drums
Guest musicians:
Peter Penko – keyboards
Anja Pavlin – backing vocals (track 3)
Bort Ross – backing vocals (track 6)
