Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Pusar, Tilen
Label: Self-released
Release: 2012
Duration: 47:06
Rating: 4.5/5
Tilen Pusar is yet another unpolished musical gem who, just by being around, quietly and almost unnoticed makes our scene a better place. Tilen Pusar is a guitarist, composer and »D.I.Y.« wizard who leaves nothing in the studio to chance. In the studio he’s his own boss, and his studio debut »Inner Strength« is an honest mirror of his heart and soul, inviting us along on a journey through his life stories.
You’ll have a seriously hard time finding a musician in Slovenia who sounds even remotely like him. With guitar sorcerers who use the language of guitar playing as their main means of expression, it’s no surprise to find influences like Joe Satriani or Jimi Hendrix. What’s interesting about Pusar is that there isn’t a speck of that in him. Sure, the man played violin as a kid, which means he’s armed with music theory, but he never caved to the cookie-cutter drilling of school scales. Pusar bets everything on melody, but he comes at it differently. He follows his senses, listens to himself. When we go hunting for comparisons, his big »wildcard« is actually the nice edge he has over other guitarists: he sometimes carries the lead melodies of the songs he picks, and lays finger-picking-adorned guitar “solo noodling” over them, leaning toward the sentiment of Mark Knopfler. Mark Knopfler back when he »still played guitar«. Go back to the era of the Dire Straits albums »Making Movies« and »Love Over Gold« and you’ve got your answer right away.
On his debut »Inner Strength« Tilen Pusar serves up twelve original pieces. For each one he built a framework, using the latest tricks of Q- Base to shape the rhythm backing (the software has been polished so well that the average ear can no longer tell what’s the work of a »machine« and what’s flesh and bone – a real drummer, that is). It’s something that’s also very familiar to a similar Slovenian D.I.Y. ace from Jesenice, Gregi Habič. Into this framework Tilen Pusar places, with an exceptional touch of filigree finesse and sensitivity, soft, supple and unobtrusive strokes of a gorgeous language of guitar improvisation. It’s made up of a perfectly calibrated arrangement of note sequences, into which he works tremolo embellishments, while the transitions are filled with single tones and broken chords in two voices. Crafty! Everything on the album is subordinated to keeping up an extremely listenable, fully defined melodic quality that grabs you the moment you press play.
It’s precisely this refined feel Tilen Pusar carries inside him that guarantees the intensifying of the melody, in which this artist’s powerful emotions glow even brighter. The result is an extremely listenable album of 12 tracks that delights with the aforementioned melodic accessibility and the grandeur of the tricks this guitar master deftly trades in throughout.
The sound is clean, »reverb-drenched«, with a velvety »echo« effect, resonating with a retro-nostalgic gaze. The Dire Straits comparisons are not out of place. And as mentioned, the sound, or rather the production of the album, only deepens the effect of Tilen Pusar’s stylistic approach, which in spots pulls venomously toward the figure of Mark Knopfler from the golden days of Dire Straits. Sounds unbelievable, but that’s just how it is!
Most of the songs are suffused with a feeling of melancholy and longing, but there are a few spots with feelings of defiance, of final triumph over the beaten demons of life’s trials, of personal purification and a complete personal renewal (fulfillment). Such are the opening Hope, Happiness, as well as Freeman. Particularly intense emotions are stirred up by the songs that capture intimate feelings of melancholy and sincere personal declarations of love for a beloved person: Snowgirl, Calling Her, I Love Her, plus the outstanding title instrumental Inner Strenght (with a chorus that builds into the closing instrumental crescendo of the outro solos in the Dire Straits classic Tunnel Of Love – the arrangement of chords and melodic lines), in which the strength of the will to live and defy conquers all. Despite the fact that the album’s red thread is the constant devotion to, and upkeep and magnification of, the lead melodies, hints of blues and even country also find their way into its record of expression. A seriously bold seasoning. The big feeling of an organic-sounding document is deepened by the »finger picking« style of plucking the strings too. You can’t overlook this hugely important element, because in the sound and style of Tilen Pusar it’s an essential building block!
»Inner Strength« is a fully instrumental album that boldly lays bare every last hidden corner of the artist’s soul. The language of the guitar works brilliantly as an honest medium for reflecting the most intimate confessions of life’s trials. An album of exceptional character, a true wellspring of emotion and authenticity! As the album’s title itself hints, it’s about the fact of being or not being, which only the inner strength of universal truth can overcome. It lies unconsciously deep inside you, and you usually turn to it for answers only when you have to fight for your very existence. That’s when you find yourself, the meaning of your mission, and rise on the wings of personal rebirth into a spiritually and emotionally more intelligent person.
»Inner Strength« is one of the finest and most honest original creations that the free Slovenian sun has put on the rock ‘n’ roll map. It wears an art dossier that proves that, with its infectious melodic character and a few parallels to the musical voice of the great Mark Knopfler, it can seriously knock on the door of the international scene. Tilen Pusar’s music carries a pile of hidden aces up its sleeve, and we hope this perceptive artist with the »magic touch« cashes them in skillfully on the road ahead in his music career.
Line-up
Tilen Pusar . all instruments
Production
Tilen Pusar
Track list
1. Hope
2. Snowgirl
3. i Love Her
4. Memories
5. Inner Strength
6. Happiness
7. Dancing Hearts
8. Thank You Herbalife
9. Freeman
10. Waiting
11. Coffee Break
12 .Calling Her
