Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Zele
Label: Croatia Records
Release: 2016
Rating: 4/5
This album has been out for well over a year now (it dropped on December 9, 2016), but it’s still worth a quick once-over, because it’s the brainchild of the legendary leader, founder and famed guitarist of hard rock outfit Divlje jagode, Sead Lipovača, known to everyone as »Zele«.
It’s this musician’s second solo studio album and the first in twenty-three years, since its predecessor »Magic Love« from 1993. It spent a long time brewing and developing, waiting for its moment. And it shows: it’s sonically and compositionally extremely polished. As such, it gives the listener a lovely general introduction to this artist’s gradual artistic maturing, the kind that comes with years of collecting experience and slugging it out in the music business. Lipovača’s talent and know-how have always been beyond dispute, but judging by what »Internal Waves of Love« delivers, the artistic step up is more than obvious.
Zele has always had a reputation as a huge perfectionist and a finely tuned, sensitive artist. So he gave this album special devotion and didn’t want to leave a single move to chance. He sent the recorded material off to Sweden for the final sound treatment (mixing and mastering), where the finishing touches on the album’s sound were handled by Andy LaRocque, guitarist of the almighty King Diamond himself. The friendship between the two musicians is no secret anymore, and LaRocque confirmed it by showing up as a special guest at a Divlje jagode show, when they opened for Deep Purple in Zagreb in May 2017. But the story doesn’t end there, because Zele’s new album features another star who also guested with Divlje jagode at that same concert: former Black Sabbath vocalist Tony Martin, who contributed vocals to the track Missing You.
Giving the material a quick run-through, it’s a mostly instrumental affair, ruled by the unmistakable guitar language of one-of-a-kind Zele. In fact, the two vocal tracks (Missing You, sung by Martin, and later on the ballad Come With the Rainbow, sung by Banja Luka singer Sonya) are, when you weigh them against the rest of the album, almost superfluous, even if perfectly decent compositions. You recognize Martin instantly, with that velvety vocal sheen that also marks the later eras of Black Sabbath, while the ballad leaves no impression really worth mentioning. What grabs absolute attention on the album are, well, absolutely Zele’s instrumental compositions. In them he surrenders completely to his feelings, which he channels to the listener as honestly as he can. In shaping every single note and tone he comes across as subtle, approaching it all with careful dedication and an exceptional amount of softness and feel. Every note struck in his guitar language feels like a convincing imprint of his emotions and passions, drawn from the basic message of each song on the album. The guitar moans and weeps beautifully, vibrating with incredible grandeur and the softness of well-tuned strokes. Zele bends feelings and ideas to the creation of highly vibrant moods. It’s an immensely atmospheric album, where the musician manages, insightfully and with sensual grandeur, to conjure up a bit of mysticism too. Melancholy and, at the same time, the unbridled bubbling of simmering passions make for a hugely convincing display, though Zele never gets swept over the edge. He doesn’t squander notes either, measuring out his tones concisely and thoughtfully, which guarantees the album is very listenable and its songs tightly compact.
All through the album, in a glow of incredible reconciliation and a tightly knit dialogue, elements of Balkan melos (arabesque), neoclassical touches and, of course, the spiciest part of the whole thing, rock’n’roll (or more precisely, hard rock), join hands. Even though Zele is a distinctive guitarist with his own well-honed art vocabulary, you can’t by any means overlook the influence of the persona and work of Richie Blackmore.
One thing, though: Zele keeps the musicality high throughout this album. He steers a wide arc around any »musical trickery« or experimenting, lounging instead in the comfy armchair of the arsenal of ideas he commands best and handles most deftly and skillfully. So no surprises, but we got a proper old-school instrumental guitar rock album with clear character traits, where »arabesques«, neoclassical and naked hard rock drive cross paths in their own way. »Internal Waves of Love« is an exceptionally lovely album that speaks to you with quickly winning, distinctive musicality, because it cultivates a homegrown character. It’s the kind of musical charm we sort of quietly expected from Zele all along.
Lineup
Zele – guitar, backing vocals
Tony Martin & Sonya – vocals
Damjan Durić – keyboards
Krešimir Kaštelan – bass
Nenad Borić – drums
Production
Zele
Track List
1. Tsunami
2. Internal Waves of Love
3. Missing You (feat. Tony Martin)
4. Aksam in Istanbul
5. Sultan of Brunei
6. Great Wall of China
7. Come With the Rainbow (feat Sonya)
8. Alexander the Great
9. Millenium Refugees
10. Richard Branson Smile
