Artist: Aritmija
Label: Celinka
Released: 2007
Rating: 3.8/5
In 2002, a first-rate innovation popped up in Slovenia. It started out as a duo with two guitars and ended up a quintet, a full band with all the varied instruments needed for truly unique music-making. That’s how Aritmija was born: a jazz-rock adventure through the Balkans that looks back at our roots, so you could call it ethno music of our Slavic past. Bands like this are common abroad, but here at home (sadly) they’re not. Aritmija thus stands side by side with our best-known band of playful fusion of jazz, rock, folk and ethno elements, Terrafolk. With the debut they put out in 2007, they proved that music runs in their blood.
“Gonilna sila”, or “Motive Force”, is an attempt to marry the melos of Southeastern Europe with the most characteristic jazz standards, something the occasional rock outbursts only reinforce. This collection of Macedonian-, Turkish- and Bulgarian-inspired tracks is enriched by a markedly different, more cohesive sound than its musical peers who sail through the history of our music. The first track on the album, “Ne si go prodavaj Koljo čiflikot”, is taken from Macedonian folklore. It’s an extremely characteristic Balkan melos that really does adorn the Macedonian original. Aritmija keeps the structure the same but adds plenty of elements from other genres that genuinely spice up the song itself. It’s lifted out of its purely Balkan setting and delivered in a distinctive way that successfully brings it close to both the casual and the more demanding listener. The next track, “Balcanis”, keeps up the foundations Aritmija has laid down. Again it combines Balkan melos with a kind of calm that only jazz can offer. “Balcanis” flows into “Nizamski rastanak”, an adapted Serbian traditional song. Aritmija’s interpretation is extremely interesting and, once again, more to my taste than the original. This super bouncy ethno-jazz arrangement is practically screaming for dancing feet on the floor. Next comes “Beli grad”, probably the most rock-infused track on the album, strongly marked by excellent electric guitar passages, and we even get an incredible guitar solo. Of course, the strumming is accompanied by plenty of instruments, above all the violin, so the song keeps all the best elements of ethno music. Once again the genre fusion is at its peak, and this is another excellent creation from Aritmija, if not the best one on the record. In the follow-up to “Beli grad”, “Katjusha’s boots”, Aritmija again keeps alive Slavic folk songs that must not be forgotten. It’s clearly their own take on “Katjusha”, the legendary Russian song about a longing girl waiting for her beloved during the war. Once more the result is outstanding: Aritmija crafts a superb arrangement that has even found fame on foreign soil. With “Frustracia” we get another bouncy number, but it’s not just that. It serves up far more than your average bouncy number. The intro alone is incredibly well built, with excellent bass lines that other instruments gradually join, first drums, then guitar, and so on. In the end all the musicians form yet another ethno treat, this time with quite a few traits of, believe it or not, country music. The mix is again incredibly fluid and easy to listen to, yet complex enough that for full enjoyment you need not just to listen to this music but to really hear it. In the next track the musicians dig for roots in the Slavic traditional past, and the result is “Čekerjankino oro”. This atmospheric ethno-jazz composition is no great peak, at least not compared to the previous tracks, but it still shouldn’t be overlooked. Another arrangement from Macedonian folklore joins the pack, “Jovano, Jovanke”, which is again a somewhat different composition. Even so, it’s still more than interesting, an arrangement in true Aritmija style. This time the band serves up a bit more rock again, though only at the start and in a kind of alternative way; the foundations of the original song are still intact. Macedonian folklore seems to be one of Aritmija’s main inspirations, since the second-to-last track on “Gonilna sila”, “Kalajdjijsko oro”, once again has its roots in Macedonia. The best-known version was made by Macedonian guitar virtuoso Vlatko Stefanovski, but Aritmija’s interpretation holds its own right next to it with no trouble. The closing act of “Gonilna sila”, its namesake, is, together with “Beli grad”, the highlight of the album. The “heaviest” track on the record shows the true face of Aritmija’s musical imagination, which, it seems, they have no shortage of. This bombastic ethno-rock madness should have been longer, or should have had more siblings, because with this song the band really nailed it. Definitely my personal favorite on the album.
Aritmija’s debut brought some much-needed freshness to our scene, and it honestly surprises me that the band isn’t exactly well known commercially. That’s a shame, because this is an incredible take on Slavic folk heritage through a unique musical lens, and it goes down easy. If nothing else, they’re a breath of fresh air around here, since unlike their musical colleagues who also swim in ethno-jazz-rock waters, they actually have huge talent, know-how and the kind of innovation that tradition is crying out for these days.
The musicians are diligently carrying on down their path, as “Gonilna sila” is followed by a “live” album, where we can probably look forward to more improvisation, meaning the musicians will pour even more of their own ideas into the arrangements. So we can hardly wait for more strumming from Tilen Stepišnik and Šemsudin Džopa, “grooving” from Janez Moder, pounding from Žiga Šercer and “screeching” from Vasilij Centrih!
Lineup
Tilen Stepišnik – classical, electric, acoustic guitar
Šemsudin Džopa – acoustic, electric guitar
Janez Moder – electric and fretless bass guitar
Žiga Šercer – percussion
Vasilij Centrih – violin
Production
Aritmija
Tracklist
1. Ne si go prodavaj Koljo čiflikot
2. Balcanis
3. Nizamski rastanak
4. Beli grad
5. Kajusha’s boots
6. Frustracia
7. Čekerjankino oro
8. Jovano, Jovanke
9. Kalajdjijsko oro
10. Gonilna sila
