Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Milčinski, Nana
Label: ZKP RTV Slovenija
Release: 2014
Length: 46:24
Rating: 4.5/5
Barely a year has gone by, and Nana Milčinski is already back with a new studio effort. Her moving debut »Pozna pomlad« clearly stirred up a lot of interest among the wider Slovenian music public. With its musical substance and its thrilling, positive impact, it flung the doors wide open for Nana, so she can keep nurturing, exploring and building on the craft of her expressive reach. Being the granddaughter of the immortal figure and work of the brilliant Fran Milčinski Ježek can be an advantage and a kind of curse at the same time. Plenty of people will say you’re ahead of the game when you don’t have to hunt for your own verses to set to music, since they’re already waiting for you. On the other hand, it’s clear you have to be incredibly brave to »play around« with the art of Fran Milčinski Ježek. If nothing else, you have to know him very well from the get-go, and there’s no doubt about that when it comes to his granddaughter.
»Od tod do vesolja« delivers a document to the scene with more genre variety than the debut, or rather more blending of genres, while the vision of the debut »Še ena pomlad« remains the base platform on which Nana built the content of the new album. The cabaret feel is more veiled than on the debut, and the intimacy is preserved, but it doesn’t stand out quite as markedly as before. »Od tod do vesolja« is conceived more broadly in musical terms. The RTV SLO Symphony Orchestra appears on the album, and so does the RTV SLO Big Band, and Nana is also joined here by what is practically a completely different crew of musicians forming the core of her backing band compared with the debut. I’ll say it straight: the new album isn’t better than the debut, but it’s considerably different. That variety is also fed by a larger pool of songwriters, which, besides the names well proven on Nana’s debut, Anže Langus Petrovič and Martin Štibernik, also includes Dominik Bagola and Matija Vrhovnik Smrekar.
The element that brings a welcome refresh to the sonic and stylistic profile of the new album is Femi Temowo. Femi is a seasoned musician, as his past career and collaborations with Amy Winehouse and Courtney Pine confirm. A jazz-schooled guitarist, producer and arranger. On »Od tod do vesolja« he’s the main guitarist, and he approached the »coloring« of its content boldly and sensually. His semi-acoustic Yamaha (modeled after the famous Gibson ES-335), with its warm, organic tone, is strongly present across the whole record. Femi also contributed most of the arrangements for the album’s songs, enriching and building on the original sound of the debut studio album »Še ena pomlad«. The guitar brings in touches of jazz, often gazes into bluesy landscapes, and when setting the rhythms it can flirt with reggae, among other things (the cheeky »Party kot za sodni dan«). Femi shows off his refinement and the fine mechanics of minimal but concise guitar tricks above all through jazzy variations in his chord voicings, which is especially welcome in songs that are dynamically stirred up with a Latin rhythm (Mala marioneta). Choral harmonies richly color the backdrop. In their melodic flow they are naturally led in harmony with the Slovenian philosophy of understanding music, but in the way they’re used in shaping the arrangements, the starting points are definitely to be found in gospel. That’s what the opening Bo pomlad še kdaj sounds like: enriched with string arrangements, it instantly recalls the golden days of the Slovenian popevka (the seventies). Nor should you overlook the world music elements that have crept their way onto »Od tod do vesolja«. If not before, this touch gets intensified on the song E Lon Lar Ler, where the choir plays a decisive role in the arrangements. The starting point for the tastefully attached »Afri-isms« in the song’s lead melodies is the opening guitar phrase by Femi Temowo, which is then built upon in the chorus by the gospel-flavored choral chant of the aforementioned guest vocal group Bee Geesus,
The fusion of Nana’s backing band (often clearly jazz-minded) and the RTV SLO Big Band works superbly, and the greatest compactness in this energetic blending is delivered by Malo pivo, where, amid symphonic orchestrations, a very tasty combination is at work: the highly responsive, thick bass foot of Robert Jukič, along with sharply timed bursts of improvised guitar ornaments from Femi Temowo. A little later comes Stol, where the truthfulness of Fran Milčinski Ježek’s socially critical satire sparks especially intensely, the very satire for which he became the subject of criminal proceedings by the former regime. These very verses are still way too hot today, when the world has become extremely dishonest, morally completely devalued, and the guaranteeing of social rights is literally »spat on« and trampled!
We also got a re-interpretation of the famous Ne čakaj na maj, which, hand on heart, was only a matter of time. This already-set-to-music standard, firmly anchored in the Slovenian consciousness, is considered the leading song of the 1957 Slovenian black-and-white film, for which Borut Lesjak wrote the music. And it’s not alone! Ljubezen naj ge vedno v cvet (music by Marjan Vodopivec) also got its cover and, thanks to the delightful duet of Nana and Klemen Slakonja, carries a real whiff of the cabaret chanson of the theater stage.
An extraordinary weave of chanson adorned with jazz elements, wrapped in orchestrations and led by Nana’s infectious, organically mellow-sounding vocal, works twice as fully! You can’t expect vocal escalations to a high C from Nana, let alone demand them. Her voice isn’t set up in such a way that its vibrations could shatter glass. But the basic vocal timbre is gorgeous, and with it Nana plays a winning poker hand of aces of full-blooded sensuality that touches the listener and, to be perfectly precise, carries them off through Nana, as the medium, to the revived world of Fran Milčinski. This works especially intensely in the magnifying of the poetry’s feelings through Nana’s interpretation of the central song Sinji sneg, then the intimate Še to noč right after it (the only one on the album additionally reinforced by a programmed rhythmic loop), Kaj tak žalosten je tvoj obraz, and the title track Od tod do vesolja. These four songs also keep the most direct connection with the songs of the debut »Še ena pomlad«. A touch of mysticism, fantasy and longing, and on the other side also the recognition of bitterness, »garnished« with an unobtrusive hint of melancholy woven under the Slovenian sky, comes across as remarkably truthful in the range of emotions on offer and, in its expressive magic, unconsciously lulls the listener.
So there’s no talk of a potential artistic embarrassment. With a crew of top-notch musicians and composers, Nana Milčinski has lived up to all the expressive sparkle of her debut with this new album too, and once again masterfully breathed meaning into the poetry of Ježek’s figure and work. That way she has once more underlined the relevance of the rich message carried by Ježek’s »evergreen« poetry. In the year when Ježek would have turned a round 100, his granddaughter presents a magnificent new musical document that she can rightfully be proud of. Mission »number 2«, once again successfully carried out and completed for Nana.
Line-up
Nana Milčinski – vocals
Femi Temowo – guitar
Marko Črnčec – piano
Robert Jukič – bass guitar
Vladimir Kostadinovič – drums
Sergej Ranđelović – drums
Gregor Gruden – backing vocals
Gregor Strasbergar – backing vocals
Eva Gorenc – backing vocals
Mitja Vrhovnik Smrekar – backing vocals
GUESTS:
Big Band RTV Slovenija
RTV Slovenija Symphony Orchestra
Vocal group Bee Geesus – choir on track no. 11
Klemen Slakonja – vocal duet on track no. 12
Production
Femi Temowo
Track list
1. Bo pomlad še kdaj
2. Mala marioneta
3. Party kot za sodni dan
4. Poletne impresije
5. Stol
6. Sinji sneg
7. Še to noč
8. Kaj tak žalosten je tvoj obraz
9. Od tod to vesolja
10. Ne čakaj na maj
11. E Lon Lar Ler
12. Ljubezen naj gre vedno v cvet
13. Beli kurir
