U prvega

Artist: Volk Folk
Label: Celinka
Release: 2012
Duration: 45:02
Rating: 4/5

With the album »U prvega«, the trio Volk Folk is yet another act that has found a home at the Celinka label. For their studio debut, Volk Folk picked 17 tracks from the folk tradition, reworked them, updated them and breathed new life into them in a playfully quirky, sparkling and affectionate way. It’s a family trio, the Volks: father Romeo, daughter Nina and son Gregor.

With Volk Folk we can talk about folk singing and/or folk musicianship. Where the three-part choir gives way to an instrumental, the lead melody that the vocals would carry is taken over by the oprekelj or violin, with warm accompaniment. The band played its first gigs back in 2000, still as a quartet, with grandpa Slavko Volk in the lineup. A typical arrangement for oprekelj, violin and bass grabs the listener right at the album’s opening with the track Mažurka (and a little later again in Štajeriš, Zibenšrit, etc…). The album keeps coming up with plenty of clever arranging ideas for combining the three instruments. On the faster tracks (Vrbiška polka) the oprakelj can be swapped for the plonarca (a Trieste-style accordion), though that’s not a hard rule (Ježevski valcer). But Volk Folk are singers too, so they slipped some pure three-part choir numbers in among the instrumentals (in the album’s running order). (Rožmarin se’m je posušil, v Ljubljao pridem čez goro,…).

In melody and lyrics, the songs carry on the traditional heritage. Since at their core they’re made for dancing, they feel lively, light, uplifting and, most importantly, immune to corrosion and rust. The tooth of time simply can’t gnaw at them, which means they hold something of an eternal, youthful evergreen quality. It would be interesting to hear versions of these songs from the days when grandpa Slavko was still dictating the rhythm in Volk Folk.

With this bundle of  selected reworkings, Volk Folk haven’t just refreshed and updated a part of the folk customs and traditions of the area between Notranjska and Primorska, in the heart of Brkini, around Ilirska Bistrica (the trio lives in the village of Velika Bukovca) – under the careful wing of Celinka, they’ve also brought them back in times when an aggressive barrage of mostly trivial information pulls us away from our roots. For a good 45 minutes, »U prvega« will make you feel like time has stopped for a moment, like the spring buds have opened, the first swarms of bees have set out for their spring pasture, and like music, in its original essence, is a reflection of centuries of people living in harmony with nature! Vok Folk are among the most authentic names out there, and in this respect they’re sure not to let you down.

Line-up

Nina Volk – oprekelj, vocals, plonarca
Grega Volk – violin, vocals
Romeo Volk – double bass, vocals

Production

Janez Dovč

Track list