Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Jarc Gregorin Trio
Label: Self-released
Released: 2017
Length: 47:30
Rating: 4/5
Last fall saw the release of yet another special album on the Slovenian music scene, this one from a trio of seasoned musicians. It’s fronted by guitarist and vocalist Jaka Jarc and his father, bassist Matjaž Jarc, with Blaž Gregorin behind the drums. The musical story of these guys is a long one, and their connections go back just as far. Jaka and Blaž played together way back in Sfiltrom, while Matjaž played with Kreslin in the lineup of Horizont. And that’s only a sliver of the rich musical mileage behind these guys, who’ve soaked up a noble dose of wisdom and layered musical polish over the years.
Yes. That’s the first impression, really. »Black blues,« but infused with the patina of alternative-rock sheen, that art contour derived from the finesse of simple, relaxed yet highly concise strokes, with the trio’s clear compositional focus standing firm behind it all. The sound of the record is alive, seriously alive. Organic, with a sonic landscape built from a blend of natural tones, and at the same time the album pulses like a real musical body, where in every »beat« you hear the inhale and exhale of this virtuously defined organism. From the first minute to the last. Truly an album that touches the heart and reaches deep into the most hidden corner of the listener’s soul and wakes it up.
Since we’re already talking about the alternative-rock contour this album carries, we can’t skip the names of a few singer-songwriters from whom it has adopted some of that bitter, dark melancholy (Lou Reed, Johnny Cash, Neil Young and Leonard Cohen too). In that gloom, Jarc Gregorin Trio can even go so far as to evoke that magnetically demonic charm of »Cave-isms,« but I’d suggest you leave the door open on these comparisons and make up your own mind. Still, the guys can be plenty playful (the country-flavored Mati koklja).
Nobody on our turf comes close to what Jarc Gregorin Trio do on »There and back again.« That means the album has a charm and uniqueness all its own, i.e. its own musical character and dossier. As for the occasional melodies in the choruses, the song Change might remind someone (well, me at least) faintly of another melancholic, this time from the Prekmurje region (Baladero). The song Leti brings real drama theater. It builds a dark theater of moods, which benefits enormously from the use of Slovenian (the album is recorded partly in Slovenian, partly in English). Also really interesting in this song is the way Jaka’s solo excursions are laid out. They often feel »exploratory« and, in the way they choose their note sequences, effectively push out of the frame of established soloing templates, of predictability and »comfort.« It only confirms that the trio isn’t interested in conformism, which just amplifies the unique face of this record.
Jaka is an excellent vocal interpreter, especially since English rolls off his tongue so well, and the delivery of the poetry works in the metrical sense too, considering we’re talking about a Slovenian band, in an exemplary and convincing way. The band is hugely refined. In its finesse (or splendor, if you prefer), it builds and escalates moods gradually. From verse into a chorus crescendo that can give you goosebumps (No Place Like Home), as the trio manages to summon a touch of mysticism at certain points. Jaka’s vocal is backed by harmonies and so »colored,« which brings the desired emotion to life more richly and deepens the mood. Often he’s also propped up by a stray guitar flourish straight out of the school of blues.
The band also served up a very enviable range of ideas across the record. On one side it can floor you with its softness and sensuality; on the other, it can hit the listener again with a rock-edged drive, as hinted at in the »petrified« blues alt-rocker Going Home Again. No wonder Jaka’s hands-on skills and studio sonic watchmaking once came in handy for a band like Melodrom.
Let me not go on too long. An extremely compact and cohesive document. Solid in its self-grown artistry. The trio members read each other with remarkable chemistry and so effectively magnify the reach of the ideas they put to the listener. A record that leaves no one indifferent, and one that pushes you to rediscover it again and again with further listens.
Lineup
Jaka Jarc – vocals, guitar, mandolin, fretless bass guitar, programming
Matjaž Jarc – bass guitar
Blaž Gregorin – drums
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Maša Golob – violin
Christopher Elphic – first guitar solo on “Going Home Again”
Melisa Spruk – backing vocals on tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10
Nina Škrjanc – backing vocals on tracks 1, 2, 4, 7
Simona Plešic – backing vocals on tracks 1, 2, 4, 7 1
Production
Jaka Jarc
Tracklist
Side A:
01 Storm Gathering (05:55)
02 Time to Fly (03:45)
03 Never be the Same (03:37)
04 Change (04:30)
05 Wandering Jon (02:22)
06 No Place like Home (03:53)
Side B
07 Going Home Again (04:42)
08 Leti (02:59)
09 Lep prelesten dan (04:30)
10 Time Flies (05:14)
11 Mati Koklja (01:46)
12 Nič ne bo kot je bilo (Slovenian version of Never Be the Same)
