Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Katice
Label: Celinka
Release: 2012
Duration: 39:41
Rating: 4/5
Katice are a famed Slovenian vocal ensemble that has spent a »solid« twenty years fusing the traditional voice of Slovenian folk songs with modern times. They first got people’s attention in 1992, when they won the award for most original group at the folk singers and musicians competition in Innsbruck. »Kateritem« is the fifth album overall from this full-blooded choral outfit, and, after »Oj, fijole, novo leto je!« (2009), their second for the Celinka label.
Katice are a highly esteemed and widely acclaimed musical formation that has teamed up with successful Slovenian acts over the years, from Magnifico, Zoran Predin, Vlado Kreslin, Terra Folk, The Stroj, Deja Mušič and Gojmir Lešnjak to, well, the list goes on. Over the years the group has played plenty of stages on the international scene, even »roamed« beyond the »Atlantic pond«, successfully spreading the authentic Slovenian melos that was born in every corner of our little country centuries ago.
The traditional melos, stretched out, laid bare and lightly ushered into the pulse of new times across 14 tracks, draws on the heritage of songs from various regions. Especially thrilling are the tracks rooted in Slovenia’s border areas, such as Prekmurje (Ftica, Gnes), the Istrian peninsula (Oganj , Konštantin), Styria (Starček), Primorska (Birtna, Marija) and Bela Krajina (Jure, Zelena, Dumbrava) – by the way, on the group’s earlier releases you can also find adaptations of folk songs from the Resia region. For »Kateritem« they also gave a vocal setting to the verses of Josip Murn Aleksandrov’s poem Vlahi, which, in the glow of a true dirge, ranks among the most interesting creations on this record. And so that the whole thing doesn’t feel so everyday and chewed over a thousand times already, Katice dig deep into the melos of the originals themselves, rescuing every situation with a truly unique harmonization of the leading motifs, which create distinct moods in the multilateral vocal-sonic landscape they build. The album is the fruit of a collaboration with Istrian musician and composer Dario Marušić, who has devoted his life to researching the traditional musical expression of the Istrian peninsula. This years-long partnership is one of the key starting points that give the album, across its 14 separate stories, the look of a one-of-a-kind creation.
The title »Kateritem« makes perfect sense once you hear it, since the songs are underpinned by a carefully chosen rhythmic structure that is adapted throughout to the core message of each individual song. In the arrangements, the rhythms and special sound effects are shaped to underline – to magnify – the moods that the female vocal choir creates at the heart of the album. In Kugla, for instance, the feeling of the final hour tolling, the doomsday of the Slovenian mountain folk who had to put on the uniforms of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and head to the battlefield, is driven home with the rhythm of a military march. The xylophone in Konštantin accentuates the song’s mysterious veil, and so do the sound effects added to the choral vocal arrangements of Gnes. The percussion bed in Sestrice conjures up downright shamanic, tribal feelings.
If you want a taste of the authentic pulse of our great-grandfathers and fathers from centuries ago, served up for a new era through a vivid, one-of-a-kind choral-vocal re-interpretation, then »Kateritem« is going to be right up your alley!
Line-up
KATICE – vocals
Alenka Trampuš Bakija
Barbara Povše Golob
Branka Krušič
Darinka Borštnik
Jana Klinc
Marjana Cešek
Metka Knific
Naja Zapušek
Nastja Zirnstein
Nataša Kosmač Bagar
Petra Trobec
Tanja Drašler
Vesna Nastran
guest musicians:
Jaka Berger – percussion, keyboards
Dario Marušić – bagpipes
Production
Aldo Ivančič
Tracklist
1. Konštantin
2. Uganka
3. Sestrice
4. Starček
5. Marija
6. Zelena
7. Jure
8. Ftica
9. Oganj
10. Dumbrava
11. Vlahi
12. Birtna
13. Kugla
14. Gnes
