Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: tAman
Label: Celinka
Release: 2016
Rating: 4/5
No, judging by the cover, this isn’t an ad for a rug after all. Maybe a »flying« one, though. You’ll find out for yourself once you get to know the album »tAman«. tAman is a fresh lineup of musicians who wholeheartedly love playing traditional folk songs from the region that Yugoslavia once covered. The band’s roots go back more than twenty years, to one of the refugee centers in Slovenia, where a group called Dertum took shape. Driven by powerful homesickness and a sense of alienation, they started performing these traditional folk numbers, Bosnian sevdalinkas, mostly love songs. The band recorded two albums and played, among other places, on international stages, but then stopped playing together.
Not long ago, a few years back, Maida Džinič Poljak, one of Dertum’s singers, gathered a bunch of musicians around her who were interested enough in a new project. She named it tAman. The crew is made up of experienced, highly accomplished Slovenian musicians who are regulars in ventures that seek out experimental takes on traditional folk melodies in a hundred and one ways. So the names that came together are Marijan Stanič (drums), Nino de Gleria (double bass), Jelena Ždrale (violin) and Luka Ropret (guitar). These are musicians who have known each other for a very long time and have racked up an enviable amount of shared mileage on the scene. Among other things, they recently played on Klarisa Jovanovič’s album »Amandolat«, almost at the same time as this album was coming together, and it shares quite a few stylistic and sonic parallels with »tAman«. So the two projects belong in the same niche of music connoisseurs.
The tAman crew, for whom the coinage »just right« would work as a translation of the name, has been playing its own selection of traditional folk songs for three years now, a selection that has grown from Bosnia and Herzegovina to take in North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia too.
So! A collection of »arabesques« in the fullest sense of the word. Musically and rhythmically. The spotlight falls on Maida’s emotive, lived-in vocals, which are of course eagerly surrounded by the refined, soulful accompaniment of seasoned musicians who know nothing about hide-and-seek or »fuzzy execution«. The album also includes a few thoroughly beloved standards, like Jutros mi je ruža procvetala and Makedonsko devojče, which you’ll recognize in no time. Most of the sevdalinkas are presented through a particular combination of instruments. An important spark in livening up the songs themselves, which otherwise carry a certain musical and rhythmic predictability, comes from the constantly active, colorful and vivid flourishes of the violin, which, with a witty touch of improvisation, can add to the whole tAman story an unobtrusive but always welcome jazzy note.
A lovely ethno melody, sounding familiar or »homey« from somewhere, yet still exciting enough despite the host of similar groups trying their hand at these standards, since »tAman« is presented throughout in a blaze of interpretation that has effectively carved out a distinctive identity of its own.
Line-up
Maida džinič Poljak – vocals
Jelena Ždrale – violin, viola, backing vocals
Luka Ropret – guitar
Nino de Gleria – double bass
Marjan Stanič – drums, percussion
Production
Sašo Kalan
Track list
1. Muja
2. U Stambolu
3. Makedonsko devojče
4. Kiša
5. Banja Luka
6. Snijeg
7. Golub
8. Porta
9. Podigni si
10. Mostarski dućani
11. Eleno
12. Ruža
13. Akšam
14. Sejdefa
