Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Brest
Label: Celinka
Release: 2017
Duration: 60:45
Rating: 4/5
Now that’s something. Combine Samo Šalamon and Vesna Zornik, or rather bring the two of them together in one musical project, and the very idea of it stirs things up and gets everyone guessing what the result might be. Add the poetry of the young, talented and up-and-coming poet Kristina Kočan, who provides the foundation the music is built on, and you get the trio behind the Brest project. The album »Nemi film« is the fruit of that collaboration.
What strikes you right away is that Brest is a musical environment neither Vesna nor Samo had ever lived in before, and yet they communicate and read each other in it with incredible efficiency, which means the creative working chemistry between them is spot on. An important weight on the scale comes from the poetry of Kristina Kočan, with messages that are sparkling, highly intelligent and sharp. The poetry is the bedrock, and it demanded a lot of delicate sensitivity from the performers while the compositions took shape, especially vocally from Vesna Zornik, who had to really work through this poetry and feel it (sense it) before she started breathing the first vocal lines into it. That’s exactly why it’s a pleasant surprise that this time Vesna mostly steers clear of the vocal approaches typical of her work with Katalena and TangoApasionada, and on »Nemi film« shows herself in a much wider range of vocal colors and interpretation.
Considering that cabaret chanson steeped in pop aesthetics, with a female voice in the center, long ago »got permanent citizenship« in Slovenia, and that we have such acts here in abundance, the achievement alone is nothing special (we’re talking about its reach within the Slovenian music scene). But in this crowded company it has managed to rise above its basic genre identity, because it keeps dealing, deftly and in its own way, with arrangement challenges that flirt across genres. Blues, world music, Latin melodies, even ethereal impulses of sonic experimentation and plenty of the jazz finesse of the exceptional Samo, who this time had to flexibly reach for the traditional tools of jazz knotwork.
For Samo Šalamon too, the concept of this project was a challenge of its own kind. How do you keep the musicality and the compact, followable songwriting, and at the same time, within these short and punchy forms with their full-blooded, tangible substance, keep adding that adventurous allure of virtuoso reflections that are otherwise typical of this multilayered, well-honed jazz guitarist? We know that his »Ornetologija«, among other things, ranks very high in the world of contemporary jazz, which is just one more proof of what an exceptional musician Samo is.
All fourteen tracks are strictly compact compositions with a clearly audible musical backbone that wins you over with lightness and sly playfulness. All the way through in a spirit of positive vibes and positive thoughts. There’s considerably less melancholy than what such musical adventures in Slovenia usually put on record. Yes. Cabaret chanson with a female voice at the center of attention, where different genres deftly pass the baton to each other, ends up in their fusion and in eclecticism. That was also the basic goal of the album »Nemi film«.
The album has remarkable organic warmth and liveliness. The drums were programmed by Samo, and the bass lines were played by, or where there are none, taken care of by Samo Pečar (Bro, Siti Hlapci). Jazz purists would find the record’s only flaw in this. The fact that the album should have featured a proper flesh-and-blood drummer from the start, namely Bojan Krhlanko (The Stroj, Pero Lovšin Band), who along with Pečar, Zornik and Šalamon makes up part of Brest’s live lineup.
Brest – Kovčki (official video):
Lineup
Kristina Kočan – poetry
Samo Šalamon – guitar, bass guitar, programming (drums), backing vocals
Vesna Zornik – vocals, backing vocals
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Miloš Bogataj – lap steel
Boštjan Gombač – trumpet, clarinet
Andrej Hrvatin – percussion
Špela Huzjak – violin
Daniel Marinič – accordion
Sam Pečar – bass guitar
Production
Samo Šalamon
