Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Zoran, Jernej
Label: Menart Records
Release date: 06.03.2015
Running time: 43:20
Rating: 4/5
Jernej Zoran is back with his fourth solo studio album. After its predecessor »Stratosfera«, released three years ago, the new »Romeo, Julija in tatovi sonca« keeps maybe even a touch more earthy, elemental grit, which is surely down to everything that’s happened over the past three years, living as we do in a brave, crazy new world. The new album also serves up love confessions, songs with a note of personal confession and a socially critical edge, a typical reflection of the unexpectedly fast sinking of the young Slovenian state.
Jernej Zoran is a seriously strong »songwriter«, let’s just say composer. His first weapon of confession remains the guitar. The talent of a cunning composer was already on show in his earlier work, including the excellent »Stratosfera«, and the current studio album »Romeo, Julija in tatovi sonca« carries on that tradition. Ten tracks are seasoned with an extraordinary, expressive passion in the way he approaches guitar playing and builds the guitar phrases themselves, which Jernej keeps layering up with all sorts of guitar embellishments and shrewdly delivered transitional passages, where it’s easy to pick out the filigree work of fitting individual pieces together into a solid, nicely shaped whole of compact, juicy, organic-sounding, infectious, classically rock-minded tracks of high musical value.
Across the nine tracks Jernej split the vocal duties among five vocalists, and for To je ljubezen he contributed his own voice. Just like on the previous album, most of the songs are sung by Lara Poreber, whose vocal charisma carries a real tinge of mystique. That’s why the part is hers on the excellent, awakening, solemn opener Kisik, which, combined with Jernej’s dynamic and fitting guitar playing, quickly lifts the album to a higher level! There’s just one instrumental this time. The track »Specialno švedsko jeklo« sounds nostalgic and recalls the eighties, when in Slovenia you could only buy one kind of guitar strings, and the packaging bore exactly those three words. In this track Jernej points, in an especially refined way, to the fact that he’s a musician who grew up on the sounds of sixties and seventies blues and rock. You can clearly feel David Gilmour’s sentiment in his playing, and his subtle blending of tones and the organically alive, stripped-down guitar sound, which most likely comes from some kind of »Telecaster«, can also be linked to inspiration from Jeff Beck, then Peter Frampton, or Mr. »Slowhand« himself, Eric Clapton. It’s precisely this sensual blending of tones in the solos and transitional ornaments, and the search for the best possible match with the guitar phrases and lead melodies, that gives this album its creative edge.
Even though everything is so nicely seasoned along the rails of retro, rustic seventies rock impulses, the extremely compact catchiness of the lead melodies, which carry the atmosphere across the verse (and pre-chorus) into the chorus with superb build-up, is a guarantee of how listenable the album is. That’s why there are quite a few tracks on the album that could easily get plenty of radio spins. Kisik is one, right from the opening of the album, then a little further on there’s the yearningly mystical Zakaj, the especially infectious Nov dan, and a bit later Moj svet, gifted with a proper rocker’s riff, where the vocal of Matevž Šalehar Hamo works supremely well. The latter carries a deliciously lucid sentiment thanks to Hamo’s interpretation and the message in the verses, and typical of the song’s rock’n’roll format is the effective build into a proper boogie pulse. An outstanding track. Tatovi sonca is a dark track leaning heavily on blues. Tina Gerbec Radakovič of EL Kachon steps in on vocals, since a track of this type, with riffs also shaded by a Hammond sound, calls for a more soul-driven vocal, and Tina is right at home in these waters and doesn’t let us down this time either with her delivery. The track Tatovi sonca and the one after it, Bruseljski predpražniki, are especially socially critical and engaged; the latter carries some »Mi2-style« energy thanks to lead vocalist Zlatko Petković, who especially in the chorus channels Tone Kregar, and also thanks to the rock’n’roll format of the song itself.
Just like »Stratosfera«, the new album »Romeo, Julija in tatovi sonca« is another document in Jernej Zoran’s discography that doesn’t have a single track you could call filler padding out the running time. The tracks stand shoulder to shoulder in quality and there’s no wavering in what they say. Every single one keeps a solid, tangible focus. The album embodies a charming sonic heartfulness, devoted to the search for organic authenticity. Dedication and devotion to polishing the arrangements are richly rewarded. Jernej Zoran’s new album, in the sheer musical compactness of its tracks and his refined guitar playing, is a gorgeous piece of work, devoted to the legacy of rock in the classic, rustic-original sense of the word. It puts the word rock front and center. It’s an album that, let’s hope, earns Jernej proper recognition from the local music scene, because for his creativity and inspiration he deserves that and more!
Lineup
Jernej Zoran – guitar, keyboards, bass guitar, percussion, vocals on track no. 2
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Lara Poreber – vocals on tracks no. 1, 4, 5, 9.
Matevž “Hamo” Šalehar – vocals on track no. 6
Tina Gerbec Radakovič – vocals on track no. 7
Zlatko Petković – vocals on track no. 8
Marijan Novina – vocals on track no. 10
Mojca Saje – backing vocals, on tracks no. 3, 5, 8, 9
Saša Đukić – backing vocals, on tracks no. 3, 5, 8, 9
Jernej Šušteršič – keyboards on tracks no. 1, 3, 4, 5, 7
Sebastjan Podlesnik – bass guitar on track no. 1
Miha Recelj – drums on tracks no. 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Miro Tomšič – drums on track no. 2
Luka Pate – drums on track no. 10
Production
Jernej Zoran
Tracklist
1. Kisik
2. To je ljubezen
3. Specialno švedsko jeklo
4. Zakaj
5. Nov dan
6. Moj svet
7. Tatovi sonca
8. Bruseljski predpražniki
9. Najine barve
10. Čutim te bolj (kot si upam priznati)
