Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Ivansson
Label: Menart Records
Release: 2017
Length: 27:05
Rating: 5/5
The EP »Gotcha!« is Ivansson’s opening career move onto the international rock ‘n’ roll stage. Ivansson is none other than Jernej Zoran, a Slovenian through and through, who has been devoting himself to carving out his own solo musical path for quite a while now. The refined guitarist, arranger, producer and composer from Lower Carniola, a former member of DMP, has added three exceptionally beautiful and splendid solo studio releases, a.k.a. albums, to his discography in recent years, all put out between 2012 – 2017. Anyone who knows them knows they’re mostly vocal albums, but instrumental tracks pop up on them too, and that’s where Zoran’s guitar language and the character of his playing step into the absolute spotlight.
With the EP »Gotcha!«, Jernej now steps onto the international music scene under the Ivansson moniker. For the EP he picked six instrumental tracks, tweaked their titles a bit, skillfully »packaged« them and offered them up to the music crowd, and the EP is already getting enthusiastic feedback from foreign music critics.
What Ivansson did with this EP was also rattling around in this reviewer’s head for quite a while, in the form of a question: »Why on earth doesn’t this fine fellow put out a fully instrumental rock album, where his guitar »bibliography of six-string theory« can shine at full blast?« And that’s exactly what the EP »Gotcha!« delivers. Jernej loaded it with instrumental tracks marked by layered, dynamic compositional mastery, which only confirms how high-minded Zoran’s musical artistry is and how refined his musical vision.
That Jernej is a huge fan of rock and blues is no news. On »Gotcha!« too you can pick up the influences of guitar masters from the great days of rock pioneering, and in Jernej’s playing you can’t miss David Gilmour and Jeff Beck, to name just two owners of that elemental softness, the kind the fine mechanics of guitar-hand skills can give, with which they changed the musical world forever. And Jernej has that touch. He has his own guitar touch, and his Telecaster moans passionately, sensually, with a burning glow. Heartfelt and real! So it’s not all about »gear«, what matters is the touch, the feel that sends out a vibration with which a musician stirs and awakens the listener’s emotions. And Jernej has that essential element and handles it with great mastery.
The cover captures Ivansson and one of his life views. It’s all about the ethic of total freedom in rock ‘n’ roll! On the cover there are two birds (symbol: freedom, honesty, truthfulness) perched on a power line (symbolizing electric music – rock)! Create freely, in other words! What marks Jernej’s musical expression is his elemental, innate sense for the incredible aesthetics of arranging notes, whether in solo excursions or in shaping guitar embellishments, which he lays over phrases and passages with careful deliberation, extremely sensitive and fitting. In this musical world of his, Ivansson manages to be almost rudimentarily rock-abrasive, instantly grabbing the listener’s attention with the EP’s opening title track, or mystical, as Special Swedish Steel vividly conjures up, where Jernej set an arrangement of vocal harmonies behind his outstanding guitar soloing that, in melos, intonation and color, incredibly recalls the domain of Pink Floyd arrangements. Jernej never runs out of dynamite in his fingers, and the tracks, one after another, thrill with a character all their own. In other words, these are six finished stories that were tempered and filed down over a long time, and so they’re optimally »hewn« and »polished«. Girded with a musical dossier that stretches from classic hard rock through elements of bluesy aesthetics to soulful trips into a world beyond the real, where the musician conjures moods of dreamy mysticism, which he achieves through extremely tender softness and sensitivity in laying down his tones.
That’s it. Let yourself be seduced by this superb all-instrumental EP, full-blooded guitar rock brilliance and compositional perfection. Let’s hope it opens the door for Ivansson to march onto big European stages.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33xAQzkqoME
Line-up
Jernej Zoran – guitar, bass guitar
Miha Recelj – drums
Production
Ivansson
Track list
1. Gotcha!
2. Special Swedis hSteel
3. Chemtrailin’ (Thngs Are Not What They Seem)
4. Monsanto Baby Blues
5. Brave New World?
6. Thingamabob
