Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Kotar, Klemen
Label: Celinka
Release: 2017
Duration: 41:44
Rating: 5/5
If you don’t know Klemen Kotar, it means you care precious little about Slovenian music. Especially the kind that’s got real substance, or is hiding behind the gig posters. Klemen Kotar doesn’t need a particularly long introduction. Suffice it to say that he teaches at a music conservatory, that he’s a multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, arranger, and a real »jack of all trades« in the studio. He’s always ready to »bust out a rotten one« too. A hugely fun, sparkling guy. No wonder he’s part of the parody quartet Nula Kelvina. Without Klemen, Novo mesto’s sharp-tongued doctor Smaal Talk would have had a hard time pulling together his two albums, we wouldn’t have gotten the such meaty »Antisonetov« by Ivo Frbežar, or the real »new bible of awakening« by Ksenija Jus and Blaž Grm, to name just a few drops from Klemen’s otherwise vast involvement in all sorts of musical projects.
So Klemen Kotar is the musical ace and king who’s always available to everyone except himself. Still, no matter that the years slip by silently and ridiculously fast, the people most responsible for Klemen finally getting himself into shape to put together his debut are his life partner Klara and of course the boss of Celinka and Klemen’s kindred spirit, the accordion great everyone knows, Janez Dovč, who also added his new accordion passion to the track Balada za slide kitaro in reverb. Klemen gathered around himself a quartet of extremely seasoned musicians who, like Klemen himself, are multi-layered, musically savvy and polished, and who he knows really well, since they’d played a string of jams together and even recorded before this album. So the chemistry was instant, and the album »Klemen Kotar & Dušni pastirji« radiates it. It’s a record played with real fire, a lot of heart and tremendous enjoyment. And that’s how you listen to it, too. From the first second to the last. All of it is captured on tape, and all of it is there for the listener to enjoy. An absolutely »non-vocal« album!
There are no genre boundaries here. Six tracks, all stretched out to serious length, boast serious motivic variety, unexpected twists, and an incredibly sparkling, witty performance (interpretation) that gives the listener a feeling of spontaneity. Within this variety, Klemen and his crew swirl through the genre springs of jazz, world music and rock. Fusion. But with no »dragging«. Everything is in its place and slotted in at just the right moment. There are heaps of solo wizardry, and of course it’s thrilling! But it’s balanced out beautifully by listenable passages where the band puts motivic cohesion front and center, along with a healthy dose of musicality that can be sorely missed on fusion albums like this. The album »Klemen Kotar & Dušni pastirji« never wanders down the dead end of »dragging« and motivic fragmentation. Instead, the crew always snaps back sharply and wakes up at the right moment, so they don’t cross the dividing line that would drive the album into the realm of possible musical excesses reserved for avant-garde weirdness. Klemen pulled the best out of his companions and vice versa. The way they pick up on each other is exceptional. Don’t forget, what you’ve got in front of you is actually a live album, recorded on 10.06.2017 as part of the Godibodi festival (Hostel Celica, Ljubljana), which also counts as his solo debut, with 100% original material. Just like the revolutionary Frank Zappa once did. The guys have delivered a real album, one of the standouts of 2017 on the Slovenian music scene.
Klemen is definitely the mastermind and conductor of this document, but certainly not its dictator. That’s why his saxophone is only part of the whole story and by no means the central figure of the album. Every instrument gets boundless room to express itself across a fertile landscape of free-spirited solo adventures, and they take full advantage of it. It’s incredible how both guitarists, Gašper Kržmanc and Žiga Stanonik, “break loose” several times on the album. They “rip it up” almost in the spirit of true rock sharpness, in the style of real jazz-rock fusion done right (compared with the world’s best in the genre). Anyone who only knows them from what they deliver in their usual bands, Nula Kelvina (Kržmanc) and Help (A Beatles Tribute Band) (Stanonik), will be flat-out stunned by their guitar playing on the album “Klemen Kotar & Dušni pastirji”. You also can’t overlook Kugler’s longer drum solo, where he gradually spreads out across the cymbals and the rest of his “skin toolshop”, and so more than a little recalls the tricks of Simon Phillips. The album is also full of mood swings. Calm, at times almost meditative passages alternate with a sped-up playful continuation and then swing back again. Dynamic waves non-stop!
The charge this album gives off doesn’t fade until the very last second of playing time. An inexhaustible spring of energy transformed into musical magic. Unique in every respect, one of a kind, unrepeatable and singular. Something that had been smoldering in Klemen for years, something he kept putting off and putting off. Now it’s here. An album you’ll be discovering for a long time. Veil by veil. Once it settles into your ears, it won’t want to leave the CD player. Let’s hope it gets a successor of its own within the foreseeable bundle of the next few years.
Line-up
Klemen Kotar – saxophone
Gašper Kržmanc – guitar
Žiga Stanonik – guitar
Miha Koren – bass guitar
Enos Kugler – drums
GUEST MUSICIAN:
Janez Dovč – accordion on track no. 4
Production
Klemen Kotar
Track list
- Delta
- Morriconejev izgubljeni fjord
- Kje ste, lopovi?
- Balada za slide kitaro in reverb
- Predmestje
- Dušni pastirji
