Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Ethnotrip
Label: Celinka
Released: 2016
Length: 39:43
Rating: 4.5/5
Ethnotrip is a band that’s been around since 2009. Three years ago they first made a serious splash with the release of their excellent self-titled studio debut. The band from Prekmurje approached its follow-up, the new album »Kdo bo pil iz bistrega studenca?«, even more ambitiously than the debut, picking songs that are once again geographically stretched between the Balkan Peninsula (Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia) and Eastern Europe (Russia, Hungary) – one of them is even in English. They certainly didn’t skip a nod to the Slovenian (Prekmurje) folk melos either (Snočkar so me zgrabil), and there’s Poveč golob from Međimurje. These tracks opened up extra room for musical experimentation in the choice of arrangements, improvisation above all, which let Ethnotrip tackle their new album on an even grander scale and be even more »self-challenging« in discovering who they are.
Vocalist Tjaša remains the most recognizable, most striking figure in the musical tale of Ethnotrip. With her extraordinarily sensual, refined, fragile approach, she comes across in the verses like an almost flawless maiden, with a constant sense of yearning, while the melancholy that’s baked into the very character of the album’s melos gets magnified and underlined even more through her interpretation of the lyrics. An exceptional performance and an outstanding voice. Once again.
Besides, it’s clear the band is drawn to »puzzling« rhythms, where one careless step and you can break both legs. Okay, you just have to pick the right dance and everything’s fine. In short, the band has a blast when it gets into the odd meters of eastern rhythms. There’s plenty of that on the album, and Tjaša’s mystically charming voice and that rhythmic »exotica«, alongside a proud and unique instrumental weave full of colorful yet compact playfulness (especially the gentle play of the harmonized dialogue between violin and piano), give the record its special charm. Its strictly organic nature is also an imprint of their live shows, since the album was recorded entirely over two consecutive concerts in their hometown of Lendava. No after-the-fact studio fixes, no cosmetics.
Although the studio debut came across as a bit cautious, with the band picking some folk song standards that had already gone through plenty of arrangement makeovers by many groups in the past, Ethnotrip used it to signal that they’re first and foremost a band that strives to keep a melodic backbone and compact arrangements. Even though the guys and the girl show they’re exceptional musicians who can burst into a vivid string of improvisational acrobatics at any moment, one thing is clear. The core of the compact song format stays untouched, and the band knows nothing of fragmentation (fraying motifs to make room for a surplus of improvised inserts). The jazz element is only present in shades, as an extra, welcome spice that loosens up the arrangements. In the instrumental middle sections, the band would rather flirt with melodic modulations, which effectively shakes up the moods (reinforcing and underlining the very »folksiness«), while keeping the listenability high throughout these parts.
So folk melos reigns over the songs, and you quickly realize that the interpretation, as radiated by the character of the album (content and mood included), could only have come from the wide plains of Prekmurje. Which makes it one of a kind. Just like the sound of the band, which Ethnotrip only deepen with the album »Kdo bo pil iz bistrega studenca?«. The transformation of folk melos through the musical vision of Ethnotrip has, in short, fully succeeded. In this story the band emerges as an entity with a musical character all its own, one that works in a singular, truly unique way. And that’s the ultimate goal of any musical act, as long as it’s honest about what it does. The album »Kdo bo pil iz bistrega studenca?« works in its warm, soulful, organic world of sonic vitality, gentle and fragile at once, chemically supple and vivid, and the interplay between its building blocks of sound is incredibly tight from start to finish. The band members constantly read each other brilliantly. You can feel they’re deeply connected, that they breathe for a common cause, that they’re on the same wavelength whenever the talk turns to music, and that they’ve played a ridiculous number of gigs together. From all this we can conclude that the album »Kdo bo pil iz bistrega studenca?« is an exceptionally bold and brave move, and one of the most beautiful documents out there, one that will irreversibly seduce and enchant even the true folk purist with its free-spirited reworking of the folk music idiom, heading toward a new musical dimension. That new musical dimension is called Ethnotrip. May it keep growing and evolving in its enchanting musical fairy tale.
Ethnotrip – Što imala k’smet Stamena
Lineup
Tjaša Šimonka – vocals
Miha Kavaš – violin
Primož Kramberger – piano, keyboards
Aleksander Varga – bass guitar
Tomi Došen – drums, percussion
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Darja Kramberger – backing vocals
Urban Kolar – trumpet
Production
Ethnotrip & Dejan Berden
Tracklist
1. Elo Hi
2. Gde ima voda studena, radule
3. Makedonske devojče
4. Šurka je Tisa
5. Snočkar so me zgrabili
6. Triumphet
7. Poveč golob
8. Što imala k’smet Stamena
9. Shalom Aleichem
10. Kad ja pođoh na Bembašu
