Self-released
Release date: September 10, 2020
Production: Žiga Fabbro & Samo Turk
Album length: 36.04 min
Genre: Ethno/Folk/Jazz
Rating: 8.0/10
Samo Turk and Žiga Fabbro are two musicians who go way back. They’ve been playing together in all sorts of musical setups for almost two decades, including Strawberry Jam and Toxine, and they’ve also clocked plenty of time jamming on the music of Frank Zappa. But seriously, where are Toxine now, and what’s left of that hugely promising experimental outfit from the Slovenian coast? Is it just the duo Fabbbro/Turk these days?
Either way, this year the two finally dropped an album, released under their joint project Fabbro/Turk and titled “Eternal Duality.” As the title says, both halves of the project pull equal weight, and it’s all dedicated to endless musical exploration. Woodwinds and classical guitar. Their interweaving. In the hands of two musicians, spoken in the language of a deeply attuned, mutual chemistry.
For the most part, these are reinterpretations of other artists’ work. One track (Uncle Frank) is an original, meaning Fabbro’s own, and the rest are covers. What we get is ethno/folk with jazz and classical influences, and at the same time an album with a distinct Mediterranean temperament, let’s say northern Adriatic, or Slovenian coastal. Through their one-of-a-kind blend of winds and strings, the two found a heaping helping of ingenuity, serving up cheeky reinterpretations of compositions by Bela Fleck (Lover’s Leap) and, for example, the well-known Sonatina Mexicana by Carlo Domeniconi, which shows up on “Eternal Duality” in no fewer than three versions that could really be stitched together into one longer piece.
Samo Turk and Žiga Fabbro played the material on the album together. Live. It was recorded at the Waldorf School in Ljubljana between February and July of this year. It’s easygoing, playful, bouncy, full of joy, and, most importantly, contemplative through and through.
Above all, the original track Uncle Frank is a blast. The two treat themselves to a bunch of experimental maneuvers and free-spirited “weirdo” adventures. In other words, a tribute to Frank Zappa. No surprise there when you look back at both musicians’ careers. It’s the longest piece on the whole album. It’s seriously loose and dishes out a thick stew of atonal tunes that cling to one another. The love for the man and his work is hardly shocking. So picture a clarinet and a classical guitar following, inspired, in the scores, what good old Uncle Frank once wrote and composed. An extremely successful way to spice up the album, a detour into avant-garde rock and jazz fusion. The guys didn’t forget the extra sound loops either, which easily bring to mind Frank’s innovations, with which, in his inexhaustible vision, he was already way ahead of everyone else, and of his time, back in the seventies.
A fun and thoroughly interesting product of two musical worlds merging, two musical entities in a deeply attuned, contemplative dialogue between two players, in the symbiosis of a special vibrational story that only takes shape when these two guys get together. The pair isn’t bringing a musical revolution, but it’s still a fun and distinctive record all the way through. And they surely haven’t said their last word. Definitely not, so we’ll be following with great interest what artistic moves they make next. Maybe this very album is the new foundation for the birth of some bold, adventurous, experimental new band. Let’s be surprised.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Lover’s Leap (04:00)
2. Sonatina Mexicana I (02:10)
3. Sonatina Mexicana II (New Age Version) (02:20)
4. Sonatina Mexicana III (03:00)
5. Beneath An Evening Sky (05:45)
6. Joropo Jam (04:34)
7. Uncle Frank (08:30)
8. Strange Love (05:47)
Lineup:
Žiga Fabbro – alto sax, clarinet, keyboards, FX
Samo Turk – classical guitar, FX
