Label: Celinka Records
Release year: 2018
Production: Igor Ilić, Peter Penko & Igor Bračič
Album length: 42:40
Rating: 8.5 / 10
“Ko se ustavi čas” is the debut studio album from Junema. Last year the band started going after Slovenian radio airwaves more ambitiously, and the single V intervalu večnih sanj earned them the flattering title of “pop song of the week” on Val 202. Junema are really a classic “derivative” of Slovenian pop music, focused on fusing elements of cabaret, pop musicality and even Latin rhythms (the opener Paradoks) and Latin sound nuances, though there’s definitely some flirting with alternative rock impulses too. But it all stays within the bounds of the “normal.” What does that mean? Melting several genre blends in one pot, the band has woven a musical ID card all its own, one that bridges those genres effectively and brings them together in an open, deeply conciliatory dialogue.
On their debut, the Junema quartet sounds confident, tight and in tune. They breathe for the same thing and strive for one musical vision. Guitarist Luka Snoj writes the lyrics, which the delicate vocalist Neža Trošt sings and interprets, or rather calls to life, with remarkable sensitivity and deep feeling. Neža’s vocals keep winning the listener over with confessional softness and a fragile, almost virginal tenderness.
A varied, lively passion play of eleven original tracks, the album boasts a well-crafted compositional identity, and it comes across relaxed, easygoing and soft, and precisely because of that softness, it’s actually pretty tantalizing. Here and there a jazzy pastel is subtly woven into the arrangements, thanks mostly to the playfulness of the piano, which is lively and uninhibited throughout. If some tracks cast a distant glance toward jazz (the piano), the electric guitar, filling the available sonic landscape of the songs just as actively, adds faint touches of trendy, conciliatory alternative rock, let’s just say indie rock, to the arrangements. The melodies, like the main hooks, sound typically Slovenian. “Ko se ustavi čas” can hardly sound more Slovenian than it does. That infectious pop musicality and the indie rock sentiment, which comes across unpretentiously and now and then lends the songs some arrangement lift from the “second plane,” get along superbly in the track Odčarana. Even when the guitar steps into the spotlight, in the mid-eight passages (solos), it stays soft and sounds absolutely wonderful, effectively holding on to that fragile, tender sweetness that runs through the album’s tracks and whose main generator is, of course, Neža’s voice. In fact the whole band plays with remarkable softness and subtlety as it goes about its business on the album, masterfully “chasing” the confessional nature of Neža’s vocals.
The band can lull and lure the listener especially intensely in the more sophisticated tracks, like Le bdi, where Neža’s superb performance floats through an extremely strong chorus on a wave of synth curtains, and the song hits its atmospheric peak. Junema head toward that peak by building up the mystical mood. Slowly. From verse to chorus. Compositionally very subtle and polished. The creative variety in the weave of sonic pastels across eleven finished songs, commanded by Neža Trošt’s vocals, shows that Junema are experienced musicians with a well-developed vision as composers and songwriters. “Ko se ustavi čas” is an album that doesn’t hide the fact that its songs ripened and developed over a long time. Simply because they’re exceptionally polished in arrangement and, compositionally, incredibly rich in motifs at the same time. That’s why the album keeps developing dynamically and holds the listener close throughout, and its biggest draw is precisely the softness and tender subtlety with which the musicians approach the interpretation of the eleven tracks.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Paradoks
2. Na mojem vrtu
3. Čakam
4. Lebdi
5. Odčarana
6. V gozdu nad meglo
7. Šelestenje
8. Tulipan
9. V intervalu večnih sanj
10. Ko se ustavi čas
11. Ugasni mi barve
Lineup:
Neža Trošt – vocals
Luka Snoj – acoustic and classical guitar
Marko Ovčak – electric guitar, backing vocals
Blaž Vehar – bass guitar
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Anja Pavlin – backing vocals
Miha Renčelj – piano on tracks 2, 4, 6 and 7
Ivo Rimc – drums on tracks 2, 5 and 6
Damjan Lebeničnik – drums on tracks 3 and 9
Primož Malenšek – percussion on tracks 2 and 6
Stephan Emig – drums on track 7
Nace Kogej – saxophone on tracks 2 and 6
Nace Kogej – saxophone on track 10
