Self-released
Release date: May 17, 2019
Production: Jernej Zoran & Igor Ilič (track no. 8)
Genre: Rock / Pop
Jernej Zoran is a bona fide music legend in Slovenia. Really, Jernej Zoran is a phenomenon whose body of work makes him a fascinating link between the classic rock’n’roll and blues sound of the late seventies and the musical allure of the songcraft that defined eighties pop. In that sense he’s a unique figure in what he does and creates.
Jernej Zoran is one of the more active Slovenian musicians. Two years ago he put out an all-instrumental EP under the alias Ivansson, titled “Gotscha!”, where we get to really revel in his guitar wizardry. Under his own name he’s already racked up four solo studio albums, and now the fifth one is here: “Stik”. That Jernej is first and foremost a composer and guitarist is confirmed by the opening instrumental Deuce, once again something special in his series of instrumentals, where alongside the polished character of Zoran’s guitar playing, orchestration takes the lead, atmospherically “deep-supporting” (depth-contrasting) the track’s main phrase. For an instrumental to open an album, a proper classic, seductive rock’n’roll instrumental, it has to be a really good arranging story, and Duece delivers all of Jernej’s strengths. With its solemn, gently mystical rapture, mid-tempo groove, rich sonic density and, above it all, bravura solos, it fully justifies the opening warm-up. The variety of the soloing here is a reminder that you can hear influences in Jernej ranging from Satriani all the way to refined old-school bluesmen like, of course, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck.
On the new album, too, Jernej sticks to a musical world that’s very familiar and close to my heart, and whose craft, compositionally speaking, he naturally masters best. Over time, in his musical vision, he has grown into a real seasoned veteran, which shows in the ever-increasing finesse and refinement of his arranging and compositional moves, so “Stik” is a first-rate showcase of the musician’s artistic maturing and polishing. Through natural self-evolution. The stuff that counts. “Stik” is a very well-seasoned record in terms of arrangement and composition, and rich in ideas, where it’s not all about guitar language and vocals, but Zoran focuses more and more on the aesthetics of dressing up the compositions with keyboards, orchestration, extra percussion, etc… In this musician’s growth that’s more noticeable than ever before.
This time Jernej leaves the vocal duties entirely to a female voice, since it’s clear that his music, with its poetry, is binding itself especially boldly to the execution of vocal grace, suppleness, tenderness and lightness that femininity, or female vocal tones, bring. On the previous record “V svojem filmu” he himself tried out the role of lead vocalist, totally credibly and boldly, but for the new album “Stik” Jernej hands the vocal duties entirely to Nina Radkovič. So, after Urška Bakovič, Lara Poreber and Tina Gerbec Radakovič, there’s a new female vocal character.
Jernej is, after all, a textbook example of musical symbolism from the Dolenjska region. You can feel it especially in the pronounced pop element, the infectious bittersweet-melancholic melody and a clearly crafted character, where, on the production side, Zoran follows through with all his perfectionist tenacity and an absolutely organic sonic aesthetic. Zoran keeps that bittersweet sadness in the melody going throughout, including with his guitar statements in the long and virtuously resonating pull-off turns of his soloing, where blues rhetoric, “Gilmouresque” flavors and even a pinch of southern rock (the instrumental Eleutheria II) most often join hands.
Among the vocal tracks, which of course openly pal around with the tradition of the Slovenian popevka, it’s again hard to pick favorites, since Bodi tu in zdaj (with a supremely clever “repackaged” instrumental version added at the tail end of the album, where Jernej’s guitar punch takes over for the vocals), Igra, Stik and Oda are all arranged and composed down to the last detail. In Oda we pick up on an awakening, positive hymn to life, or more precisely to the gift of life, where acoustic arrangements take the lead and the main guitar phrase grabs the attention (Oda), along with Nina Radkovič’s piercing, distinctive vocal, which especially shines with all her charms of deep sensuality and devotion. This is a track that, along with the whirlwind Igra, in the first half of the album, could spin freely at any moment on the most besieged frequencies of Slovenian radio, and one more proof of Zoran’s exceptional knack for fusing infectious musical pop aesthetics with his generally internalized rock and blues fire. The mysterious Galaksije strtih src also carries a deftly captured pinch of mysticism.
“Stik”, as Jernej Zoran’s fifth solo studio album, cements this musician’s status on the Slovenian music scene. It’s a gorgeous proof that Jernej Zoran is becoming a great artistic aesthete in everything he does, and one more confirmation of his flexible, expressive knack for blending the lightness of pop with bold, playful, even lucid, but always full-blooded, ignition-ready rock and blues romanticism.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
rating: 9.0 / 10
Track list:
1. Deuce
2. Bodi tu in zdaj
3. Igra
4. Eleutheria II
5. Stik
6. Galaksije strtih src
7. Druga polovica neba
8. Oda
9. Bodi tu in zdaj (instrumental version)
Musicians:
Jernej Zoran – guitar, bass guitar, percussion
Nina Radkovič – vocals
Peter Urek – keyboards
Miha Recelj – drums
Miro Tomšič – drums on tracks no. 7 and 8
Jani Hace – bass guitar on track no. 8
Leonardo Zorzi – orchestration
Anja Pavlin – backing vocals
