Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Lamai
Label: Celinka
Release: 2017
Length: 43:12
Rating: 4/5
The name Lamai belongs to Lara Podreber, a singer from the Dolenjska region of our little country. In recent years she has lent her voice to two albums by former DMP guitarist Jernej Zoran, singing the lead female vocals on his original material on »Stratosfera« (2011) and «Romeo, Julija ter Tatovi Sonca« (2014). Even on those records, her talent, her feel and the distinctive timbre of her voice breathed a special expressive character into Zoran’s songs.
Lamai is a special kind of singer, not just another instant female voice of Slovenian origin that grates its way out of the radio, one of a crowd you can’t tell apart because they’ve all been polished to the rules of conservatory singing, picked up at prestigious music academies. Lamai offers a different experience. She has a distinctive vocal nature and interpretation that bring recognizability and difference. She develops a magical, fragile, even shyly mysterious approach, addressing the listener gently and without pretension from start to finish, while touches of mystique, girlishness and soft vocal rhetoric keep creeping into her voice. A talent like that is usually laid in a musician’s cradle. Lamai discovered hers and nurtured it with care, and now the time has finally come, with real maturity, to present her voice on a solo studio debut.
Working with Lamai on the arrangements and compositions was Dolenjska sound engineer, producer and composer Bort Ross, known to friends as Borut Antončič. Just look at his 2015 album »Sančo Pansa« and it’s not hard to see what a healthy Slovenian »mainstream« album should sound like. Bort Ross, who is also a multi-instrumentalist and singer, has carried his sense for compositional and arranging perfectionism over to »Tam« with flying colors, working together with Lara. Slovenian music audiences haven’t yet given him his due, and the man surely deserves higher recognition and a bigger profile. So »Tam« has an exceptionally strong level of musical catchiness. The songs hang together compactly, one after another, with verses and choruses well defined and well built, flowing smoothly into each other. In places they build moods up to peaks in the choruses and in the pre-chorus build-ups. »Tam« also features a new version of Ross’s song Moja jutra, which originally appeared on »Sančo Pansa«. With a reworked arrangement and Lamai at the vocal helm this time, the new version paints completely fresh moods and pastel shades of emotion.
The album was played by a crew of seasoned, experienced musicians who turn up on plenty of studio records by all kinds of artists. The production is firmly rooted in an organic sound and natural tones. It has warmth and life, the building blocks of the sonic picture breathe dynamically and coexist in lovely balance. That’s why the soundscape feels so effectively filled out. Ruling over it from the center, of course, is Lara’s sensual, confessional voice, which adapts wholeheartedly to the messages in the lyrics, so the sense of intimacy, delivered almost instinctively, stands out all the more. In its softness, her delivery occasionally comes close to a whisper, deepening the veil of mystique and longing.
»Tam« is an emotionally powerful album of infectious pop rhetoric. It’s a record marked by a pile of details and finesse, an album of sensual fine-tuning that its makers poured into it with real sincerity. It has also picked up some radio play, with the songs Bela luna and Proti vetru finding their place on the airwaves. It’s vocally distinctive, teasingly seductive and enchanting, and earnestly, carefully »wrapped up in its arrangements. As such, it couldn’t introduce Lamai’s first steps into the world of the solo artist any more beautifully or authentically, and she takes them with confident courage.
Lamai – Bela luna (official video):
Lineup
Lamai – vocals
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Bort Ross – bass guitar, keyboards, guitar, backing vocals on tracks 2 to 9.
Borut Perše – guitar on tracks 1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9 and 10.
Aleksander Raztresen – guitar on track 7
Orgad Dror – guitar on tracks 3 and 5.
Robi Pikl – guitar on track 7
Matjaž Kajzer – trumpet on track 5,
Jernej Šušteršič – keyboards on track 8.
Joseph Wheba – keyboards on track 6.
Davor Klarič – keyboards on track 7
Dejan Slak – bass guitar, keyboards on tracks 4 and 6.
Tomaž Zorko – double bass on track 9.
Jani Hace – bass guitar on tracks 5 and 7.
Janez Gabrič – drums on tracks 3, 4 and 7.
Ivo Rimc – drums on tracks 2, 5, 6, 8 and 9.
Lara Šiljevinac – backing vocals on track 6
Production
Bort Ross
Track list
1. Sanjam
2. Vdihni me
3. Drugam
4. Spet te slišim
5. Tam
6. Bela luna
7. Proti vetru
8. Moja jutra
9. Pod valovi
10. Prek zidov
