Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Zupančič, Irena & Lopatič, Rok
Label: LP glasbena produkcija
Release: 2016
Duration: 40:35
Rating: 4/5
Some albums make you feel any review is superfluous. But hey, here goes. If nothing else, these few sentences will help the curious at least discover that it exists and, as a result, how rich it is in content. First bit of info? You’ve got to start somewhere.
So Irena Zupančič and Rok Lopatič have put out a deeply interesting album, and a pretty unusual one given the Western European idea of what a “proper” life status is (family, good salary, acquiring, controlling, dominating, lots of material wealth,…). It can step in at any moment as a soulful guide through the time and space we live in. It hits hardest when you listen to it in the geographic region it comes from, though its (therapeutic) mission is far broader and knows no borders, just as the universe, where the universal cosmic energy transformed into this album comes from, knows none. »Valovi ravnovesja« is a fully instrumental album. It’s a folded tapestry of organic and electronic sounds woven into unique soundscapes, and the result is an out-of-the-ordinary album with a clearly shaped character, the fruit of a one-of-a-kind pairing of two musicians.
Even though two people committed the “original sin,” Irena Zupančič is really the driving engine and the visionary behind the musical look of »Valovi ravnovesja«. She uses the magic of music as a kind of therapy. In that sense the album is made up of seven points, just as the body has seven energy centers (chakras). Each track offers everyone the chance of self-fulfillment (well, temporary at least) while they wander unwittingly (and forever unsatisfied) through the stress of everyday life. Rok Lopatič, the other half of the duo, is a man full of colorful musical experience, gathered through his work in the band Leeloojamais, then in his own projects writing music for theater productions and, of course, in recent years as an indispensable member of the mighty Laibach. On the album he mostly takes care of implanting a backdrop of synthesizer curtains that reinforce the feeling of undulation, and into those he adds the sweet-sounding organic tones of a classical piano. Irena Zupančič is the creator of natural sonic nuances, which she produces using traditional Tibetan and Indian instruments such as various gongs, crystal and Himalayan bowls, an ocean drum, rain sticks, little bells, rattles,… Together they’ve made an album of balance between these sounds, where the building blocks of sound coexist throughout in an exceptionally fine symbiosis.
Every track has its own character, because behind its creation stands a primal intent that gives each one a certain shamanic, if not downright ritual command, guiding and steering us in discovering ourselves. So switching off the rational mind is a must here, the conditioned mind has to drop away, otherwise the album’s message won’t reach you. That’s why you need to summon the courage to switch off every thought when you put this CD in the player. Follow your senses while you’re at it. Let them honestly lead you to the desire to merge with the energy of this album.
Irena carefully picked through the sounds that she and Rok wove together into seven points. I don’t know the detailed backstory of how it came about, but judging by the moods that, with the ratio switched off, carry the listener into the bosom of a transcendental drift through a parallel world of discovering your own primal essence and true mission, I dare to speculate that Irena must have used meditative approaches while shaping the album’s points. That’s how she reached the purity of the channeled vibration that Irena, as a “medium,” authentically translates onto the album. Only that way can the album’s vibration work properly when any one of us spins it. The meditative moment is of course dominant, while at the same time the energy of the music offers an extremely alluring mysticism that keeps drawing you in through a string of unpretentious sonic veils, always sensually in tune, in constant multiple dialogue with one another.
The energy carried by more than 40 minutes of this music is comparable, say, to the score of the film 2001 A Space Odyssey. Through this charming, spontaneous undulation of sonic veils, it’s easy to picture the birth of a nebula, the genesis of the whole universe we’re part of, and the album, to paraphrase, leads us toward the primal information of who we even are. Everyone has their own story about that, one they have to arrive at entirely on their own. It may well be that the album »Valovi ravnovesja« will help them find it.
There’s no deep philosophy here. Surrender. Let the album seduce you, switch off the rational and logical state for a moment so the vibration of this album can start awakening you into self-discovery. It’s an album with clear spiritual connotations that, while you explore your inner self (optionally), can help an individual mature and grow emotionally and spiritually, and so discover the beauty of themselves and the universe. An album that deserves all your attention in every respect. An album you can’t rush, an album that calls out to you on its own, and yet an album you steer yourself. You are its pilot.
Irena Zupančič & Rok Lopatič – Valovi ravnovesja:
Lineup
Irena Zupančič – gongs, crystal bowls, Himalayan bowls, shaman drums, ocean drums, rain sticks, little bells, rattles,
Rok Lopatič – piano, synthesizers
GUEST MUSICIAN:
Dejan Lapanja – guitar on track no. 5
Production
Rok Lopatič
Tracklist
1. Glas tišine
2. Dežela ljubezni
3. Pogojeni um
4. Kozmični orgazem
5. Zibelka sladkosti
6. Poljub zemlje
7. Življenje je praznik
