Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Narat, Boštjan
Label: Založba Pivec
Released: 2010
Length: 33:13
Rating: 4/5
Boštjan Narat, leader and founder of the incorrigible Slovenian folk sympathizers Katalena, joins the ranks of Slovenia’s finest singer-songwriters with the album »Strah je odveč«. After a decade inside the mother band, the man realized he needed a wider creative range to bring to life all the musical ideas that are racing around in his head.
Narat is a seriously well-read musician. A professor of history and a doctor of philosophy has to be. His broad mind that knows no limits, his refined sensitivity in picking up and absorbing information from his surroundings, and above all his talent for translating a message through the sermon of poetry all arrive in the form of a standalone studio monument, at a time when the musician, a singer-songwriter in this case, has reached full musical maturity. »Strah je odveč« is an outstanding piece of work, of high artistic value, with a special charm and character that gets to the listener in a very particular way.
Narat is down-to-earth. He keeps you on your toes the whole way, leading you like a bunny chasing a carrot dangling from a stick through a sarcastically skewed trickery of sparkling, juicy metaphors, and then almost in the same breath he drops you into the lap of the cruel reality of everyday life. With the skill of a poet who knows how to shake up the listener and jolt them awake. And that’s the artist’s basic guiding principle. In every sphere of art. Narat knows how to handle »romance in hell,« to put it superficially.
»Strah je odveč« is a confessional, intimately felt album! First and foremost. Narat wonders about life after life, about the feelings that are born in you when you ask yourself what happens when you »go home« (read: when your mission is complete and it’s time to die), as is made powerfully clear in the opening Yet another tango and the closing Odhod domov, as well as Na pol poti do kraja. How cattle feel in their own skin when they realize they’re worth the most only once they land on a plate is vividly painted in Ko se bo žrlo zares.
In the valley of Šentflorjan not much has changed in all these years. Long ago, Jani Kovačič already made no secret of his cannibalistic tendencies when he offered his children his own hand on a plate. Now we’ve been waiting for over 21 years for a miracle that will never come. So not even Narat believes anymore that anyone actually gets what a revolution is (Daša in marksist). All that’s changed is that we in this country have gone completely numb and don’t care anymore how they drink our blood: legally enthroned henchmen, acting under state decrees laid down from the constitution downward. It doesn’t even matter if they’re »self-proclaimed.«
Narat has carried all his experience, skills and the maturity that comes with years of learning and exploring yourself over from his years of service in Katalena to this solo studio effort. He’s armed with his signature, warm, fully feeling voice and a heartfelt acoustic guitar accompaniment that is never banal or superficial, but always manages to wring first-class character out of the melos backing Narat’s poetry, which fully works to magnify the expressive reach of that very poetry. The combination of harmonics and chords in the lead guitar phrase of Odhod domov is a textbook example that will instantly show you that Boštjan Narat is very sparkling at laying down arrangements for acoustic guitar too. And of course as an acoustic guitarist. A combination of poetry and acoustic guitar that won’t bore you for a second. Don’t worry.
Narat excels at building up a mood, in the sense that the message he wants to put front and center lands with just the right expressive crescendo. That’s the key to success in showing authenticity, and in that way the singer-songwriter legitimacy of any artist. It’s a tradition of building verses into melody that can only sprout under Slovenian skies. That’s the link with Katalena that comes through most clearly in the song Panter spi. So you won’t meet a more stripped-down, honest and direct face of the singer-songwriter sermon than what Boštjan Narat serves you on a platter.
On the title track he masterfully harmonizes the chorus lines in a vocal duet; on the closing Odhod domov he’s joined in a verse duet by Mina Špiler (Melodorom) with her almost whispering, caressing, sensually supple vocals, followed by a crescendo of the duet in a contagious chorus melody; on Panter spi a »mini choir of Narat’s vocals« sneaks in. Those are the three points on the album where we find decorative extras to the otherwise bare delivery of verses over acoustic accompaniment.
»Strah je odveč« is a record that, in its subtly delivered truthfulness, hits hard and wakes you deep down, and fully shocks the listener too. »Strah je odveč« is among the most interesting singer-songwriter works in Slovenia. With it, Boštjan Narat has carved out a thoroughly recognizable spot under the free artistic-creative sun of the valley of Šentflorjan and put himself shoulder to shoulder with the finest names in our country, each of whom delivers their poetry in their own way. From the roguishly sparkling Adi Smolar and Iztok Mlakar to deeply insightful usurpers like Jani Kovačič. Simply put: »Strah je odveč«, with its principle of delivering truthfulness, demonstrates Boštjan Narat’s exceptional reach in the aforementioned handling of metaphorical trickery within a given verse, and an outstanding sense for building up the theatrics, so that he brings the message of the poetry intensely close to the listener!
Lineup
Boštjan Narat – vocals, guitar
GUEST MUSICIAN:
Mina Špiler – vocals (track no. 10.)
Production
Blaž Celarec
Track list
1. Yet antoher tango
2. Ženske, ki ljubijo pse
3. Strah je odveč
4. Na pol poti do kraja
5. Panter spi
6. Ko se bo žrlo zares
7. CDG 14.45
8. Daša in marksist
9. Stara jajca
10. Odhod domov
