Artist: Severa Gjurin and Borut Činč
Label: Založba HAD
Release: 2013
Duration: 67:23
Rating: 3.6/5
For this latest collaboration, which is definitely a welcome addition to our music scene, two extremely distinctive musicians have joined forces – Severa Gjurin, one of the most unique and surely one of the best female voices around here, and Borut Činč, a true elder statesman of Slovenian rock and a member of the legendary Buldožer. So what can two names like these bring to the table together?
The concept behind their work was already very appealing in itself – even in the early announcements there was talk of a rather abstract musical form, an invented language, or a random stringing together of syllables… everything pointed to deeply atmospheric music that transcends any earthly feeling and drifts away from space and time as we know them. And since we know Severa’s voice, we can assume the record will deliver exactly that. And since we know Činč’s brilliant mind, we can assume the record will deliver exactly that.
Časovne skice, as the album is titled, are exactly that – sketches. They’re abstract, often without a solid form or common thread, and yet you don’t get the sense of unfinishedness that comes with sketches; abstract doesn’t mean unfinished. So the songs aren’t made in that sense, they aren’t an outline of something, they are that something. As you’d expect, the music is very mellow. Činč’s instrumentals are buried deep in the background, somewhere above us rather than in front of us, while Severa’s vocals are more direct, more upfront, maybe even the bigger part of this abstract story. Severa, clearly, often doesn’t even need to sing – her voice achieves every aesthetic law music could possibly be defined by through recitation alone. Činč, on the instruments (mostly the Hammond), often just holds a chord, almost a kind of drone, over which Severa then delivers a line of syllables, drawn-out vowels, or just a sigh. Although this kind of music seems experimental at first glance, there’s actually rather little of that – bolder moves only show up rarely, like at the end of »Vu, vu, vu, vu«, where there’s a kind of reverse reverb, time stops and spins backward, as abstractly as it does concretely in the music.
You can’t fault the concept of Časovne skice, since it’s something new for us, especially at this scale and on a scene that’s not exactly underground. Still, I’d have a hard time saying the music itself is all that creative, or that it’s really something new. Abstraction is sometimes just an excuse for the lack of something concrete and coherent, and as soon as the music takes on a more tangible shape, it quickly slides into fairly typical pop waters. The album was probably also made as a kind of expression of the moment, hence the title, and the track lengths, many over 10 minutes, fit that too. That’s why I’m convinced a big part of the music is improvisation and momentary inspiration, which makes it a fascinating document of a passing moment, of time that has slipped away, and that runs against its own abstractness, its transcendence, its transcendentalism. At that point the concept becomes stronger than the music itself, and I’m not sure whether that’s good or bad. It just is.
Still, the music on the album is – good. Appealing. And with Severa’s voice and Činč’s unobtrusive instrumentals, it’s definitely full of pleasures. It often walks the line of so-called »elevator music«, but never really crosses it, which keeps its artistic value intact. Whether it manages that thanks to its concept or simply thanks to the mood doesn’t matter.
Through and through, the album is definitely an experiment. An attempt to catch an unstoppable moment in time, conceptualize it, and conjure it up through the eternal substance that is music. To immortalize it in a very special way. Whether it succeeds is something each listener can only judge for themselves. But you can never fault the album for its ethereal warmth, which creates moods more pleasant than almost any other record can.
Lineup
Severa Gjurin – vocals, guitar
Borut Činč – Hammond
Production
Severa Gjurin and Borut Činč
Tracklist
1. Popopoldanska 01:44
2. Vu, vu, vu, vu 11:59
3. BN1 12:24
4. BN3 04:54
5. BN9 18:23
6. Kam siej 07:54
7. m 10:05
