Label: Celinka
Release year: 2012
Production: Aldo Ivančič
Album length: 38.32 min
Genre: tango
A little late to the party, but here we go anyway. This record deserves your full attention, no question. It’s a head-on collision of tango standards, or more precisely Argentine tango, as filtered through the European way of taking in and perceiving the genre. And where else could an idea like this come trickling from but Slovenia? Vesna Zornik, whom we all know as the singer of the homegrown free-wheeling folk outfit Katalena, has made an incredibly bold move. With just the right, refined, careful and above all intelligent arranging touches, she’s sent her solo studio album “TangoApasionada” out into the world. It’s an album of re-arranged tango standards that now gleam in a distinctive musical outfit, with Vesna Zornik’s unmistakable vocal stamp as the guiding thread.
Pouring all the ideas echoing around Vesna’s head into one record was no easy job. Aldo Ivančič is a name that arguably stands for the greatest master of electronic sound production in Slovenia right now, and it practically offers itself as the ideal savior for “TangoApasionada”. The result is a singular monument to the Slovenian take on the point of tango. First and foremost it’s a mirror of Vesna’s heartfelt devotion to the genre and of the rich experience she’s gathered working on all kinds of projects and with all kinds of artists on the Slovenian scene, as well as in her home band Katalena. And last but not least, above all, we have to rewind the tape to when Vesna had already proven she was flirting with the tango tradition. That’s documented in her take on A Las Cinco De La Tarde for the show Don Kihot, which also found a spot on “TangoApasionada”. So this is a new step in the development of Vesna’s artistic soul, and one that came about completely naturally.
At the center of the whole “TangoApasionada” universe is Vesna Zornik’s performance. She clearly feels fantastic in the role she’s picked. With a whiff of cabaret chanson, Vesna leads the listener through the album, in the glow of sophisticated vocal tiptoeing, of soulful excitability and trembling, caressing mimicry, of the bittersweet testing of the heart’s vulnerability on its way to the feeling of falling in love. She does it with confident ease, and her full-blooded, heartfelt interpretation leaves a deeply tangible impression, tightly packed with authentically delivered emotion poured into the verses. The South American temperament is proverbially hot. Nothing new there, right? The lyrics are aimed squarely at heartache and don’t put up with rationalized outbursts. So there’s no escaping a drink of intoxicating elixir from a chalice weighed down with the rolling fervor of sensual eroticism. Vesna is superb at ramping up the drama through the verses, which she paints with a generous dose of passionate dynamics. And no wonder. The Spanish language is simply tailor-made for her interpretation. Tango De Lengue is an example of the album at its best, where Vesna’s vocal passion, the Spanish language and the tango melos all click together.
Of all the tracks, the arrangement of Libetango, originally by the “black antelope” Grace Jones, comes across as the least convincing. The cover isn’t wrong in any way, quite the opposite. It keeps the vividness and the persuasiveness of the record. But English in this track just doesn’t bind as intensely into the tango genre blend as it does in the rest of “TangoApasionada”, which are led by Spanish.
On one hand, the electronic tint, buddying up with the sweetly welling rhythms of hot Latin temperament, sensibly ties into past experiments by the likes of Gotan Project and even Portishead (say, a song like Glory Box, especially if you strip out the distorted guitar sound in the chorus). But that’s only a distant parallel, though it’s pointed out enough that it can stir up interest in “TangoApasionada” among fans of those bands too. Aldo Ivančič’s production, which also includes embellishment with extra software samples (Noche Transfigurada), deepens that wink across the whole album. On top of that, the “little tricks” of the great masters, like underpinning the basic rhythm with a sub-rhythmic sonic effect imitating castanets (Noche Transfigurada), are hugely welcome touches that maestro Ivančič skillfully works into the arrangement concept of individual tracks. That (starting-point) “electronic” tint of the production leans heavily on software samples and keyboard accompaniment, and in select melodies it’s excellently bound to Vesna’s vocal. It often creates a feeling of pop catchiness, which makes this an easily accessible album. With its heart, it should win over the wider music masses (at least) in Slovenia.
In the transitional melody that leads the chorus back to the verse, Por Una Cabeza offers possible witty arrangement solutions drawn from the musical backdrop of Spanish film melodramas. The tender, melancholic pathos of the dialogue between violin and Vesna’s vocal in Vuelvo Al Sur doesn’t hide that later in the album either. The middle instrumental section is rhythmically underpinned with a software sample that feels like breathing the ancient “1983-84” sound tricks of Depeche Mode into the tango form. Of course it doesn’t step into the foreground, since the violin solo takes primacy and “covers” that sonic effect. In this track the verse itself also makes more room for guitar, which contrastingly emphasizes the rhythmic figure of the song, while additional guitar parts (the “wah-wah solos” lurking in the background of the sound picture) wonderfully upgrade the dynamic development of the song and of the album. The classicism of the tango school is preserved to the greatest extent in the album’s closing track, the already mentioned A Las Cinco De La Tarde, which is presumably of older origin. It has the most organic tone in the dialogue of instruments, between the slowed-down form of the rhythm and the lead piano arrangement that blossoms to the max throughout the song. Given its substance, this track is deliberately placed at the end of the album.
“TangoApasionada” is a unique document. It symbolically sums up the reactive flexibility with which the intellect of music art in Slovenia (and so in the wider European space) responds to the phenomenon of the Argentine tango tradition, which in this way takes on a peculiar and unrepeatable form on European soil. And this release proves that the Slovenian musical intellect is very broad and its resulting reactions to tango’s original message very flexible. Vesna and her crew managed to present the tango form in a thoroughly convincing way, new and different. In this kind of musical outfit the form sounds fresh, special, unique. The centrally placed, excellent vocal collision of Vesna with the core of tango music wouldn’t carry such special qualities if Vesna hadn’t had excellent, experienced musicians at hand in the studio, people who had already worked with her in the past. Standing out among them in particular is the contribution of Aldo Ivančič’s refined attentiveness.
In that respect, let’s hope Vesna doesn’t stop at ventures like this in the future and that “TangoApasionada” gets a successor (close in character). There’s still plenty of room for this kind of provocative caressing of the masses’ ears. All the more so if you consider that the genre gulfs between this and Portuguese fado, as summed up by Mariza, currently hot on the global stage, aren’t that wide anymore. Of course these are just potential, optional hints. Who knows, maybe the heartfelt breadth of Vesna Zornik’s love for the world’s musical folklore will stop right there with her next release.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
rating: 9.0 / 10
Track list:
1. Malena (02:54)
2. Cada dia (02:28)
3. Tango De Lengue (02:57)
4. Querer (04:20)
5. Libertango (04:16)
6. Paciencia (04:05)
7. Noche Transfigurada (03:01)
8. Por una Cabeza (04:44)
9. Vuelvo al Sur (04:07)
10. A las cinco de la Tarde (03:34)
Lineup:
Vesna Zornik – vocals
Aldo Ivančič – rhythm programming
Ana Duša – backing vocals
Andraž Mazi – guitars, banjo, dobro, pedal steel
Erik Marenče – keyboards
Metod Banko – backing vocals
Nikola Matošič – double bass
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Adonai Meru – vocals
Boštjan Gombač – trumpet, vocals
Davor Herceg – piano
Marko Turšič – second double bass
Oksana Pečeny – violin
Polona Janežič – handclaps
Ricardo Delgado – second double bass
