GAŠPER TRČEK: OLIVIERI - ROK ZALOKAR QUINTETAN

Jazz

Format: CD

Code: 115837

EAN: 3838898115837

A versatile artist Gašper Trček started following the footsteps of the painter Aleksa Ivanc Olivieri quite unexpectedly when, in 2014, his mother, conservator-restorer Tamara Trček Pečak, was preparing the author's paintings for an exhibition within the KUD Sestava activities performed at the Hostel Celica. The mould that had already compromised artwork, and its removal, gave birth to an idea of ​​creating a documentary film, which included archival footage of an interview with the painter dating back to 1994. Interestingly, Gašper Trček was born in the same year. Encouraged by the beauty of the paintings and the emerging film, the then barely twenty-year-old musician wrote the composition Window on the Bay and recorded it in his home studio, to give sound to the aforementioned documentary only a few days later. He sought inspiration for the composition in the provinces of Corsica, where the painter found a safe haven, but also in the intertwining of music history, such as church madrigals, with the most modern guidelines of Scandinavian jazz, which he, (as then) a student of trumpet at the University of Graz, was no stranger to.
Prior to that, he had already solidified his creative career with music and literary creation, and at the final exam of the Conservatory of Music and Ballet Ljubljana, he united them as a whole, adding other instrumental and vocal-instrumental compositions, unknown to the public. Taking into account the entire oeuvre of the author until his premature departure into the timeless abyss it is possible to believe that Window on the Bay represents an important milestone, since it is the first non-verbal instrumental-vocal work, followed by about thirty similar works.
The one thing that all of them have in common are the orchestration of vocal polyphony, piano flow, and the agility of jazz improvisation. Therefore, in the works of Gašper Trček, at least in the context of compositions, simply called Olivieri, it is actually reasonable to talk about a music genre, which is supported by the similarities between the two creators. They both sought to maintain a pure artistic expression, without unnecessary intellectualisation, since they believed that the creative process was a combination of ardent desire to sing one’s own song with a glimmer of social actualisation, which is the responsibility of every artist. Perhaps for this very reason (the same as their physically eternally young author, but extremely mature in his earliest years), they carry a contradiction: rich harmony, vocal complexity, melodiousness, and openness. Thus, the listener feels that he or she is walking in a circular fashion through the individual motifs of one composition, but also from one to another, while experiencing different variations.
Just as he followed in the footsteps of Aleksa Ivanc Olivieri years ago, now everyone else is following his footsteps. The pianist and his friend Rok Zalokar, who has already participated in Trček's debut The Stream of Consciousness, plays a special role. The selected compositions included in this album therefore follow the musical aesthetics of the person in whose mind they originated, even though the records were at different stages of development, ranging from completed notated compositions and chords to melodic fragments, whether in writing or sound. Zalokar, who received the repertoire for listening only during the preparations for the memorial concert, retains the original idea of ​​two (female) vocals, piano, double bass and (subtle) drums, or might as well awakens it to life, since the author had no opportunity to realise it.
The excitement of listening to yet unknown compositions and the pain of emptiness caused by the loss of a friend probably have at least in part resulted in the compositions for this cycle to become pianist's favourite part of an otherwise extensive and diverse oeuvre. In selecting the compositions that found their place in this release, he relied on the level of compositional perfection, which was greatly inspired by Trček's piano recordings and the ability to identify oneself with the compositions. Lina Rahne, one of the vocalists with whom Trček also collaborated, and who remembers that their encounters had an almost mystical flair, also played an important role. Because of the admiration for all the beautiful things that Gašper Trček wanted to contribute to the world, the enthusiasm for his versatile productivity, serious approach and at the same time fragility, which often separated him from the world, as he put his own creative source at the centre of his life, she still identifies him with The Little Prince, the timeless hero of the story written by the French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
When listening to the serene and almost spiritual Olivieri, it is reasonable to ask if the essence of his all too short a life may not have lied precisely in the fact that in all his years he most faithfully followed his own uninterrupted source of artistic activity, which reaches into both music and literature, painting and film arts. Although he has been with us for merely twenty-three years, the significance of his works remains imprinted into eternity precisely because of the inspiration he awoke, and with which now, as a messenger from some other cosmos, he awakes all of us through the echo of his earthly works and opens a window to the bay, which may even be a window into the world. The world here or to the great beyond. 

Nina Novak,
critic, music publicist and author