Author: Urban Bolta
Artist: Orlek
Label: Klopotec
Release date: 03/29/2012
Length: 43:49
Rating: 4/5
Orlek, from the Zasavje region, are among the busiest bands in Slovenia. For a solid twenty years they’ve been playing nonstop across the country, heading out on shorter tours all over the world and cutting new albums, which puts them right at the top of the Slovenian music scene for sheer consistency. But resting on all those years of service brings new blisters to the band’s hands, since staying constantly present means new studio feats to keep up with the times. Orlek know this well, and three years after »Anduht« (2009) they’ve delighted their fans with a new album, »Repete«.
As the title already gives away, the album brings a new dose of old Orlek: older songs re-arranged and re-recorded, plus one brand-new tune, Življenje gre naprej. The older songs were picked completely at random, so the album features tracks that get played regularly at gigs as well as lesser-known, long-forgotten Orlek compositions.
With »Repete« Orlek have pushed their boundaries further than ever. The already colorful palette of genres they usually work with has been stretched even wider, and the band set off on a stroll toward new dimensions. Despite the remarkable variety, the thirteen tracks hang together as one tightly knit whole with a clearly defined central thread. On »Repete« Orlek dropped the mask, gave up the electricity and created an intimate string of acoustic-flavored cracklings, which, despite the mellow tone and an almost complete lack of rock’n’roll flair, still carry the unmistakable Orlek rhetoric.
Orlek stripped the reworked songs bare and re-arranged them, and compared to the originals, the new wholes sound fresh and homegrown all over again. The opening track Hotel grm flirts shamelessly with the rhythms of Cuban salsa, and the interplay of horn section, backing vocalists, acoustic guitar and accordion keeps conjuring up surprising twists into styles of music less familiar to Slovenian ears as the album goes on. Experimenting with world music rhythms has definitely paid off for Orlek, judging by the result. Accordionist Jure Tori, one of the few original members still around, has found new challenges lately by founding the instrumental Jure Tori trio, and it’s precisely his accordion dancing between Orlek’s classic style and gypsy ethno melodies that proved a winner on »Repete«. The best proof is Full House, teamed up with the brass. All the arrangements build on merging many different sonic silhouettes into one single whole, and polishing them carefully was demanded by the aforementioned lack of electricity and punk arrogance, so the Zasavje boys had to pay more attention to filling the sonic space in ways they’d normally rarely bother with. Gremo na Bunkovc is a typical example, an arrangement enriched by a horn section of trumpet, trombone and sax, where the new sonic building blocks slot in as if they’d always been part of it. The ever good-natured guru and excellent interpreter Vlado Poredoš handled getting into the Orlek lyrics like the pro he is, helped along by the vocal trio of guest »Sisters«. What’s more, Fontana želja is sung by solo vocalist Neva Marn Hafner (sister of drummer Saša), who breathes new life into the song’s moving story. Touching and brave! The only completely new song on the album is Življenje gre naprej, which fits in perfectly with the rest of the material and successfully bridges the gap between »Anduht« and the band’s possible next studio album.
»Repete« is yet another piece of the unique Orlek mosaic, a heartfelt album of rare depth and sensuality, and, not least, a document of a band’s maturity, rising above any genre barriers more than ever before. Orlek remain a band that brings generations together, and with the new album »Repete« maybe more powerfully than ever!
Lineup
Vlado Poredoš: vocals, mandolin
Jure Tori: Brandoni accordion
Mitja Tori: double bass, bass guitar
Matej Fele: acoustic guitar
Bojan Bergant: banjo, electric guitar
Kristjan Adamlje: saxophone
Jan Adamek: trumpet, backing vocals
Ečo Matko: trombone
Sašo Marn: drums, percussion
Guest musicians:
Vocal trio: Sestre (Neva Marn Hafner, Ester Adamlje, Blažka Fele)
Neva Marn Hafner: flute and lead vocals
Tomislav Goluban: harmonica
Production
Orlek
Tracklist
1. Hotel grm
2. Moja boginja
3. Življenje gre naprej
4. Tik tak
5. Bistahar blues
6. Srečen
7. Gremo na Bunkovc
8. Brinjevka
9. Houdre
10. Fontana želja
11. Full house
12. Posmrtna pesem za gospo Marijo
13. Balkan express
