JUBILEJ

Pop Music - Rock

Format: Digitalno

Code: 118111

EAN: 3838898118111

In honour of 70th Ljubljana Festival ZKP RTV Slovenia, Festival Ljubljana and Radio Slovenia – Prvi program (First Programme) are releasing the double album by Tomaž Domicelj entitled Jubilej (Jubilee). For it Domicelj selected the best of what he played acoustically in seven years at three venues in the Križanke complex.

An old guitar proverb says that anyone can play an accompaniment, masters can play at lightning speed with their eyes closed or the guitar behind their head, while only real virtuosos know how to play a song subtly and with such feeling that it touches the lis- tener’s heart. Sometimes it takes three chords, sometimes just two, but it’s how they are played that matters. An old songwriter’s proverb adds that the messages transmitted by the voices accompanying the lively playing are also important. And when I hear these old proverbs and customs, I remember the inscription on Tomaž Domicelj’s first album from 1977 expressing praise for his guitar playing. But of course we already knew this: Tomaž started out as a singer-songwriter in the noble spirit of similar classical (rebellious and lyrical) masters, whose works he also adapted, but he presented himself to the general public in Yugoslavia at gui- tar and other festivals especially with his outstanding mastery of finger and bottleneck guitar techniques. When we have in front of us the best of what he played in seven years at three venues in the Križanke complex, either in the Devil’s Courtyard, the Knights' Hall, or the front courtyard, it is clear that he never rested on some ancient Roman laurels as one of Slovenia’s most important songwriters and rockers, but instead kept honing his playing and always presented himself at Križanke as a virtuoso on the guitar (among other things), which always helped him tell his stories, even on pop festival stages. We only have to remember the leg- endary twelve string intro to the song Danes bo srečen dan from 1975. Although Jože Privšek helped Tomaž beef his composition with an orchestra, that famous riff, which makes us instantly recognise the song, stood out already back then.

“What messages they are sending out”, we wrote up there. In the six concerts that have been recorded, Tomaž Domicelj carefully chose the songs from his large opus. There was always a mixture of poetry and pop songs, rock and pop, folk, blues and country, and other such categories that aren’t really important, but nevertheless are. Happy Autumn, Days of Slovene Entertaining Music, Melodies of the Sea and Sun, festivals of chansons, Boom festivals, experimental releases etc. Great hits and “hidden treats” for connoisseurs. These concerts were famous for highlighting such treats. Tomaž assembled his repertoires in such a way that the whole breadth of the most hidden paths of his lyrical and musical course was revealed: the sharpness of his performances at the very beginning of his career, but also his warmth, which was on offer to all who would take the time. Tomaž Domicelj never concealed the fact that “even men sometimes cry”, and why should he – he had enough self-confidence as an author and performer and he never compromised his musical expression just to “produce hits”. And it is for this reason that he continues to move ahead on his path and these songs have entered the nation's col- lective musical conscience. They did not follow existing templates with the aim of topping the charts, but did so in the end because they were good. Which also says something about longevity and integrity.

At those concerts, which were faithfully recorded by the Radio Slovenija team, it was always a great pleasure to hear Tomaž’s most intimate side. Yet, although he decided that these performances would be for those who don’t like being shouted at to “put their hands in the air”, instead offering “walks” through creativity and serious interpretations of songs that “stand in special places”, he did not shun anyone and even invited specially chosen guests whose contribution fulfilled his vision for sounds and messages. So each concert had an additional sound component, which was chosen in such a way that it fitted the concept of a particular evening. From the first one in 2015 with Lado Jakša to the most recent one in 2021 with Primož Grašič, and all those who have come and gone in between, who were or have become an integral part of his story. And as we are talking about concepts, Tomaž called these concerts “Acoustics”... with a supplement. The first three were “Pure acoustics”, then “Acoustics rediscovered”, and almost acoustic etc. These concerts saw Tomaž Domicelj test both songs that had been “laid bare”, as well as “newly dressed” songs; songs that had never really acquired proper acoustic forms and songs that had taken them on, but that were now different with the added value of a new arrangement and new approach in the mature period when the songwriter himself perceived the messages of his previous canon differently and on different levels than before, giving them a patina and creating a new experience. This includes the witty monologues that are always a special experience at Tomaž Domicelj’s concerts.

In his selection for this release, Tomaž Domicelj has focused particularly on songs written only by himself. Lyrics for the song Verjela boš fantu s kitaro were contributed by Feri Lainšček, and the only two Domicelj’s translationas are Dravski most and Loški grad. When listening to them, it never occurs to us that they originally stam from American murderous ballads and old Irish folk songs, as Domicelj has completely personalised them. Listening to Carrickfergus, we forget the legacy of the Dubliners, Loudon Wainwright, Van Morrison, and others; the song becomes Loški grad, completely his own moving, personal testimony, which builds on the bitterness of the original. But Loški grad is entirely Domicelj’s song, quiet and frail already in its original studio version from the album Človek v ogledalu, recorded in the early 1990s, while for Dravski most he followed the example of the version sung by Olivia Newton-John and had Neca Falk sing it decades ago. However, when we hear him sing it, we can also hear the Carter Family, Johnny Cash and Pete Seeger, not to mention Lunsford, Clarence Ashley, Porter Wagoner and others. And when we go through the selection, from the self-ironic Bog me še ne mara (God does not love me yet) from originally performed at Happy Autumn festival in 2001 at the first Acoustic, to the fiery version of El Risco de Famara from 2021 – not forgetting that now and again a string on his guitar snapped while he was playing the first song, simply because he got carried away – we suddenly see the broad picture of our (popular) musical heritage. “Meri’s” tetralogy, political and general social satire, the moving Pesem za sina, the direct Povej, kar misliš and Ko pravica spi (which particularly speak to our current mentality), and everything in between. The opus and legacy, which cannot be discarded or forgotten no matter how it is framed. Tomaž Domicelj is an impressive songwriter and a prominent guitarist, not just in Slovenia. This is already clear now. God does not love him (yet), the devil is afraid of him, but we listen to him and believe him. And that is the most important thing that an artist can do for us.

- Matej Krajnc