DOMOVINI

VINYL COLLECTORS CORNER

Format: Long Play

Code: 119842

EAN: 3838898119842

At ZKP RTV Slovenija, in cooperation with Radio Slovenia – Prvi program, Hostnik pa Krečič are also releasing the vinyl album Domovini (To the Homeland). The album was first released digitally in October, when it was premiered together with the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra in a live broadcast of the programme Sobotni glasbeni večer on Radio Slovenia’s First Programme. This is their third studio album and at the same time the first project by the duo not performed in dialect. The album was recorded in collaboration with the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra as part of the prize Tomaž Hostnik received for winning the Festival of Slovenian Chanson. All orchestral arrangements were written by composer Matija Krečič, the lyrics by Hostnik, and the music was composed jointly by both artists. The album was produced by Tone Jurca, with visual design by Tomato Košir. Guest performers on the record include zither player Damjana Praprotnik and the male vocal ensemble Garažni decet. The central theme of the album is love for the homeland, and it soon becomes clear to the listener that love—as Hostnik sings in one of the songs—comes in a hundred forms or more, not just one, or even, as some would have it, the only “correct” one. Musically, the album masterfully weaves together fragments of Alpine kitsch, reading-room patriotic fervour, and more unconventional musical ideas. One of the album’s tracks, Ljubim te, Slovenija rjava (I Love You, Brown Slovenia), was even censored several years ago, when the Board of the Prešeren Fund removed it from the programme of a state celebration due to allegedly inappropriate content.

The decision to release the album on vinyl came after careful consideration. “The question of what to put into print today is still very much open. For some time now, there have essentially been two camps: the majority, who are no longer interested in physical formats at all, and a smaller group made up of collectors, nostalgics, and romantics—people who like to hold something in their hands or turn listening into a kind of ritual. Since we ourselves use both options and feel equally close to them—perhaps the latter a little more—we decided on vinyl, which is in any case more durable than a CD and has a bit more ‘heft,’ something that ultimately suits the music of this album, which is quite rich and full-bodied,” says Hostnik. The vinyl edition also includes all song lyrics, as many listeners have expressed a wish to read them while listening to the music—or even on their own. Both artists also feel that the lyrics form the skeleton of the album, on which everything else—music and arrangements alike—is built.

The duo will present the vinyl album live on 15 December 2025 at 7:30 PM at Kavarna Cukrarna in Ljubljana. “The concert will be special, as we will perform the entire album for the first time—and without the orchestra. To make the atmosphere even more patriotically ‘reading-room-inspired,’ the male vocal group Garažni decet will join us. In short, it will all be so sweetly charged that listeners are guaranteed to get goosebumps,” Hostnik announces.