Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Aritmija
Label: Celinka
Release: 2012
Duration: 53:35
Rating: 4.5/5
Since 2002, the duo Aritmija, made up of Tilen Stepišnik and Šemsudin Džopa, has been doing something that’s honestly a special asset enriching the Slovenian music scene: acoustic instrumental takes on their own music, or reinterpretations of the traditional ethnic spirit of famous, even world-renowned melodies.
Aritmija’s strength is authorship. Stepišnik and Džopa have been writing their own music right from the start, when their debut »Gonilna sila« set sail in 2007, and that gives the duo full artistic credibility and standing that has to be taken dead seriously!
Aritmija is something every fan of the joint records by that unforgettable acoustic titan trio of guitars, McLaughlin, Di Meola and De Lucia, simply has to check out. All that heavy kneading and swirling of fingers sets the guitar necks on fire and melts the strings! If those three masters did it their way, reinterpreting world music and their own, Stepišnik and Džopa do it differently, as befits their geographic roots, and of course in the blaze of their own originality! They never run out of dynamite in their fingers as they slyly combine the infectious melodic catchiness of the lead melodies with incisive free improvisation that owes its apprenticeship years mostly to jazz. This time, of course, the jazz vector is subordinate to the idiom dictated by the two musicians’ original minds of musical perception, and serves merely as an extra tool in the acoustic-guitar fine mechanics of the album »Ulica«.
Another similar combo, though a trio, that just popped into my head is California Guitar Trio, stripped of the »Fripp-isms«, of course. With Aritmija, a big plus alongside the original idiom is the clearly highlighted element of unpredictability, implemented with a hot, inexhaustible desire for musical improvisation and experimentation. The guys can be slyly soft and fragile at moments, as they hint in the intro Piperkovo oro, a track that later flares up in its Balkan melos into a special brand of extravagance. The same goes for another »Balkan-rustling« one, Pri izviru, as well as the especially endearing, gentle Arkade, which proves that Stepišnik and Džopa aren’t many stone’s throws away from Stanley Myers’ famous classic for the film The Deer Hunter. Arkade relieves the glowing, expansive mass of brazenly lucid improvisation, which seems to have no end in sight, with the effective arrangement solutions of Gypsy Song. That track is without a doubt among the album’s highlights! In the opening Taira the guys shamelessly flirt with flamenco influences.
This album has another special dimension to it. It was played entirely live, on the streets of Ljubljana, in the summer of 2011. From all the material they played, the guys picked only the best. Of course, they later »washed« the raw originals in the studio so you can’t accidentally hear any »side sound farts«, such as the wailing of sirens from ambulances racing along Celovška and/or Dunajska, or other bustle less suited to the expressive cleanness of this release. Still, the acoustic approach is a winning poker hand of aces when it comes to catching genuine organic feel. Natural nakedness that, in the performing passion of both artists, instantly and irreversibly gets under the listener’s skin.
Stepišnik and Džopa prove once again their multilayered musical perception, which you could also call classical schooling, and especially their talent for boldly solving arrangement combinatorics, in the brilliantly adapted Gun’s N Roses classic Sweet Child O’ Mine, which they renamed Sladko dete for their album. This kind of arranging of famous rock classics is a well-known expressive trump card of California Guitar Trio as well.
For the new album, Aritmija has morphed back into a duo from a five-piece lineup. The link to the album »Live« (2010) is kept by Piperkovo oro, which of course in the new version is driven only by the sound of two acoustic guitars. The album »Ulica«, which the artists dedicate to street musicians, gives the duo an excellent platform for further development and for exploring the reach of musical experimentation. Options include, for instance, using various guitar pedals and sound effects, from delay effects and the like. So there’s plenty of starting points for the free, unbridled development of their own artistic prism. »Ulica« is an album of exceptional extravagance in musical adventurism and the sensually sensitive appeal of a genuine musical one-off, which comes across in its moves as provocative, eclectic, exploratory, and therefore never stops thrilling in its uniqueness.
Line-up
Tilen Stepišnik – guitar, saz
Šemsudin Džopa – guitar, saz
Production
Simon Debelec, Janez Križaj & Aritmija
Tracklist
1. Taira
2. En la calle
3. Bal canis
4. Piperkovo oro
5. Ples lastovk
6. Sladko dete
7. Pri izviru
8. Gipsy Soul
9. Merak
10. Arkade
11. Bre vodeničare
