TangoApasionada

Artist: Zornik, Vesna
Label: Celinka
Release: 2012
Running time: 38:32
Rating: 4.5/5

A bit late to the party, but better late than never. This record undoubtedly deserves your full attention. It’s a collision of tango standards, Argentine tango to be precise, with the European way of taking in and perceiving the genre. And where else could an idea like this have bubbled up if not in Slovenia? Vesna Zornik, whom we all know as the singer of the home-grown, free-spirited folk band Katalena, has made an exceptionally bold move. With the right, refined, careful and above all intelligent arranging  touches, she has sent her solo studio album »TangoApasionada« out into the world. It’s an album  of re-arranged tango standards that now shine in a musical outfit all their own, with Vesna Zornik’s unmistakable vocal stamp as the guiding thread.

Pouring all the ideas ringing around in Vesna’s head into a record was no easy job. Aldo Ivančič is a name that’s arguably the greatest master of electronic sound production in Slovenia right now, and it practically offers itself as the ideal savior on »TangoApasionada«. The result is a monument all its own to the Slovenian take on the point of tango. First and foremost it’s a mirror of Vesna’s wholehearted devotion to the genre and of the rich experience she’s gathered through collaborations on various projects with different artists on the Slovenian scene, as well as in her home band Katalena. And last but not least, above all, you have to rewind the memory to when Vesna had already proven she was flirting with the tango tradition. That’s documented in her take on A Las Cinco De La Tarde for the play Don Kihot, which also found a place on »TangoApasionada«. So this is a new developmental step for Vesna’s artistic soul, and one that came about completely naturally.

At the center of the whole »TangoApasionada« universe stands Vesna Zornik’s performance. She clearly feels right at home in the role she’s picked. With a whiff of cabaret chanson, in the glow of sophisticated vocal tiptoeing, of feeling-soaked excitability and trembling, caressing mimicry, of the bittersweet testing of the heart’s vulnerability on the road to being in love, Vesna leads the listener through the album with easy confidence. At the same time, her full-blooded, heartfelt interpretation leaves a deeply tangible impression, tightly packed with the pouring-out of honestly delivered emotion in the verses. Latin American temperament is proverbially hot. Nothing new there, right? The lyrics are aimed squarely at heartache and can’t handle any rationalized outbursts. So there’s no escaping a sip of the intoxicating elixir from a chalice weighed down with the undulating fervor of sensual eroticism. Vesna is superb at building the drama through the verses, which she paints with a generous dose of passionate dynamics. No question about it. The Spanish language is tailor-made for her interpretation in this respect. Tango De Lengue is an example of the album’s ideal coexistence of Vesna’s vocal passion, the Spanish language and tango melos.

Of all the tracks, the arrangement of Libetango, the »black antelope« original by Grace Jones, comes across as the least convincing. The cover isn’t wrong in any way, quite the opposite. It keeps the vividness and persuasiveness of the record. But the use of English in this track doesn’t bind into the tango genre blend as intensely as in the rest of the album’s »TangoApasionada« numbers, which are led by Spanish.

On one hand, the electronic undertone, which cozies up to the sweetly gushing rhythms of hot Latin temperament, makes sense as a link to past experiments by acts like Gotan Project and even Portishead (say, a track like Glory Box, especially if you strip out the distorted guitar sound in the chorus). Still, it’s only a distant parallel, though one pushed forward enough that it can spark interest in »TangoApasionada« among fans of those bands too. Aldo Ivančič’s production, which also includes embellishment with extra software samples (Noche Transfigurada), simply deepens that gag across the album. The »little tricks« of great masters are hugely welcome here, such as underpinning the basic rhythm with a sub-rhythmic effect imitating the sound of castanets (Noche Transfigurada), and maestro Ivančič deftly works moves like these into the arrangement of individual tracks. The aforementioned (starting-point) »electronic« undertone of the production leans heavily on software samples and keyboard accompaniment, and in selected melodies it binds superbly with Vesna’s vocal. It often creates a feeling of pop catchiness, so this is an easily accessible album that, with its heart, should win over a wider music crowd (at least) in Slovenia.

In its transitional melody that leads the chorus back to the verse, Por Una Cabeza offers possible gags of arranging solutions with a musical backdrop out of Spanish film melodramas. The tender, melancholic pathos of the dialogue between violin and Vesna’s vocal in Vuelvo Al Sur doesn’t hide this later in the album either. The middle instrumental section is rhythmically underpinned with a software sample that evokes the feeling of breathing the ancient »1983-84« sound tricks of Depeche Mode into tango form. Of course that doesn’t step into the foreground, since the violin solo takes the lead and »hides« the effect. In this track there’s more room in the verse itself for guitar too, which contrasts and underlines the rhythmic figure of the song, while additional guitar parts (the »wah-wah solos« tucked into the background of the sonic picture) give a very welcome boost to the dynamic development of the song, as well as the album. The classicism of the tango school is preserved to the greatest extent in the album’s closing track, the already mentioned A Las Cinco De La Tarde, which is supposedly of older origin. It has the most organic texture in the dialogue of instruments, between the slowed-down rhythm form and the lead piano arrangement, which blooms to the fullest throughout the song. Given its substance, that’s why this track is deliberately placed at the end of the album.

»TangoApasionada« is a one-of-a-kind document. It symbolically sums up the reactive flexibility with which the intellect of musical art in Slovenia (and with it, the wider European space) responds to the phenomenon of the Argentine tango tradition, which in this way takes on a distinctive and unrepeatable form on  European soil. And this record proves that the Slovenian musical mind is remarkably broad, and that its reactions to the original message of tango are remarkably supple. Together with her crew, Vesna has managed to deliver the form of tango in a thoroughly convincing way, new and different. In this kind of musical outfit the form sounds fresh, special, unique. Vesna’s excellent vocal collision with the core of tango music, placed front and center, wouldn’t carry such special qualities if Vesna hadn’t had excellent, seasoned musicians at hand in the studio, people who had worked with her before. Standing out among them is above all the contribution of Aldo Ivančič’s refined attentiveness.

In that spirit, let’s hope Vesna doesn’t stop at similar ventures in the future and that »TangoApasionada« gets a successor (close in character). There’s still plenty of room for this kind of provocative caressing of the crowd’s ears. Especially if you consider that the genre chasms between tango and Portuguese fado, as summed up by Mariza, who’s currently hot on the world stage, aren’t all that far apart anymore. Of course, these are just potential, optional hints. Who knows, maybe the big-heartedness of Vesna Zornik’s love for the world’s folk music at large will stop right there with her next record.

Lineup

Vesna Zornik – vocals
Aldo Ivančič – rhythm programming
Ana Duša – backing vocals
Andraž Mazi – guitars, banjo, dobro, pedal steel
Erik Marenče – keyboards
Metod Banko – backing vocals
Nikola Matošič – double bass

GUEST MUSICIANS:
Adonai Meru – vocals
Boštjan Gombač – trumpet, vocals
Davor Herceg – piano
Marko Turšič – second double bass
Oksana Pečeny – violin
Polona Janežič – handclaps
Ricardo Delgado – second double bass

Production

Aldo Ivančič

Track list