Rick Harsch: The Manifold Destiny of Eddie Vegas

I won’t conceal the fact that I know Rick Harsch – the author of The Manifold Destiny of Eddie Vegas – personally. What’s best about that – apart from being able to enjoy Rick’s sunny disposition and roguish good looks first-hand, of course – is that sometimes he lets me read his work before it’s published. So I happened to read Eddie Vegas more than four years ago (judging from my history on Goodreads), but, of course, the lazy slob that I can be, I didn’t bother to write a review. The convenient excuse that I told myself was that I found it just the tiniest bit weird to express opinions about an unpublished book. Which is true, but still: now along comes Eddie, having recently been published by River Boat Books – which is fabulous news, as I’ve always cheered for this novel – and I’ve wound up owing Rick a review all this time later. Which worries me, because I usually don’t remember what I had for lunch yesterday.

I’ve started writing this worried that rummaging through my mind for things I remember about Eddie Vegas would be frustrating – and yet, completely unexpectedly, I find myself remembering all these vivid details for some reason. As this is, sadly, definitely not true of every book I happen to read, apparently Eddie has made quite an impression. So let me see what I can remember from more than four years ago.

The Manifold Destiny of Eddie Vegas is a formidable tome in terms of length and complexity, yet it reads effortlessly, smoothly, and very quickly – especially once you get the hang of Rick’s trademark linguistic stunts. I’ve had the fortune of reading much of what Mr Harsch has written, and I don’t suppose he ever disappoints in this regard – but I found that Eddie was truly on (a yet) another level. Still, I don’t feel that Rick ever crosses that fine line between good taste and gratuitous fanciness: while he is indeed an impressively eloquent linguistic delinquent, he is also as hilarious as he’s unrelenting. And his lists, for crying out loud, the lists! They are poems, really: from dirty, drunken ditties to dazzling diatribes such as the horrendous thirty-page list of moronic, imbecilic, and idiotic names – truly pure-blooded American names – for doomsday devices. What am I going on about, you ask? Well, Rick approaches the rather sensitive subject of nuclear tests with the immediacy of a battering ram: instead of wasting any time yammering about it, he just hands us a list of names of each individual nuclear bomb that Americans have ever blown up on their own soil. There is a truckload of them – the list goes on forever – and seeing so much human idiocy in one place is about as bizarre and disturbing as watching the news or checking out your favourite social media stream.

However, Eddie Vegas is undoubtedly far from being all fancy bells and whistles and no substance. Four years after I read it, I still remember it as a magnificent, intricate, urgent spectacle spanning two continents and multiple timelines, a political thriller, a (noir) crime novel, an absurdist comedy, a love story, a drama, a poetry collection, a dictionary of languages forgotten and newly invented, an epic historical novel, and even a Western (I haven’t read a Western as good as parts of Eddie for a very long time, if at all) – all of this at once.

In short, Rick Harsch’s newest novel is not only a treasure cove of language porn – it is also a narrative rollercoaster, artfully fashioned by a whimsical narrator you simply can’t help admire even when he gets intentionally annoying. In times somewhat different than the current age of Twitter tweets and rampant split-second attention deficit disorder I can easily imagine this becoming a part of the canon. Kids in secondary schools and universities all over the English-speaking (or English-learning) world could easily be pestered with this instead of Finnegan’s Wake, for example – only that in case of Eddie, they might even be interested in making it further than the cover.

 


 

The Manifold Destiny of Eddie Vegas is NOT available on Amazon. It can, however, be ordered directly from the publisher, River Boat Books, which kindly offers two links: head here for U.S. purchases; and here for international orders (everywhere except the United States).

Iniquity (Augmented)

Iniquity (Augmented), the third track from the new Cynicism Management release planned for about a year from now, has been released on SoundCloud.

It is still one of my favourite tracks from the first Cynicism Management album, Tit, (i.e. a small bird of the paridae family, of course), which I am “renovating” for its 10th anniversary re-release, titled Tit Augmented, planned for about a year from now.

I have no idea why I was under the impression that this one would be easy to mix. Instead it was excrutiatingly tricky to get it where it is now, and it ultimately turned into an epic monstrosity with tons of automation as I tried to squeeze every ounce of dynamics out of these ten-year-old tracks while fitting in the new drum takes and making everything sound better (and more audible). In the process, I ended up changing the “dramaturgy” of the song considerably in comparison with the original track, and I must admit I’m very happy with the result. That, of course, is a subjective opinion. More realistically speaking, I hope it’s pretty decent now and that I won’t have to rework it yet again in another ten years.

Monika Fritz – vocals
Aljaž Tulimirović – guitar, bass
Jan Urbanc – guitar
Borut Praper – drums, keyboards, additional bass & guitar

Music by Borut Praper & Aljaž Tulimirović
Lyrics by Borut Praper
Recorded, produced & mixed by Borut Praper
Vocals co-arranged by Monika Fritz
Mastered by Andrej Hrvatin

Track artwork by Matej Peklar
(Upcoming) album artwork by Matevž Praper

 More info about the project (and the reasons for it) is here .


INIQUITY

Put me up and put me down
Mercy fuck me then turn around
Ready-made as I serve any whim
Then I’m disassembled
Limb from limb

Sometimes when I snap
I turn on you
You cross the line
I cross it too
I feel disdain
You feel the pain
Again

I’ve been had you took the piss
But made me feel I have been amiss
I’ll just leave you to bleed to death
And you’ll thank me as you
Gasp for breath

You are lying
So I keep prying
I swear
I will hunt you down
Won’t make a sound

Abruptly I can see this might be iniquity

Maybe we could all agree
that this might truly be iniquity

This might be iniquity

Life Malignant (Augmented)

Life Malignant (Augmented), the second track from the new Cynicism Management release planned for about a year from now (for – blimey! – already the 10th anniversary of the original Tit), has been released on SoundCloud. More info about the project (and the reasons for it) is here.

CONTRIBUTORS:
Monika Fritz – vocals
Jan Urbanc – guitar
Borut Praper – drums, keyboards, bass & additional guitar

Music by Borut Praper
Lyrics by Borut Praper
Recorded, produced & mixed by Borut Praper
Vocals co-arranged by Monika Fritz
Mastered by Andrej Hrvatin

Track artwork by Matej Peklar
(Upcoming) album artwork by Matevž Praper

LIFE MALIGNANT

Every day and every weeknight
I get more cancerous
Each endeavour every stage fright
Gets me cancerous

Every weeknight
Every stage fright

Every time I close my eyes
I get more cancerous
Sometimes I get caught by surprise
And get more cancerous

Every weeknight
Is the same plight

Sleeping pills say let go
But reason murmurs don’t know
It’s out there stalking me
And it wants me cancerous

I’m complaining whining pining
Pondering this curse
But I go on, although declining
Shitting long-shat turds

Every weeknight
Everyday plight

E-book update & release

The novels Cynicism Management and Pendulum Pet have both been updated and released in most e-book stores. Pendulum Pet, previously exclusive to Amazon, has now been removed from Amazon out of solidarity with my new U.S. publisher River Boat Books, and both novels are now available, in electronic form, in most e-book stores except Amazon. The price of both books has been set to $ 3.99. Find the universal book links that will take you to the lists of all the stores the novels are available in below each cover.


Available in the following e-book stores


Available in the following e-book stores

Touring My Backyard (Augmented)

Touring My Backyard (Augmented), the first track from the new Cynicism Management release planned for about a year from now, has been released on SoundCloud. Head here for detailed information about the project (and the reasons for it).

CONTRIBUTORS:
Monika Fritz – vocals
Jan Urbanc – guitar
Borut Praper – drums, keyboards, bass & additional guitar

Music by Borut Praper
Lyrics by Borut Praper
Recorded, produced & mixed by Borut Praper
Vocals co-arranged by Monika Fritz
Mastered by Andrej Hrvatin

Track artwork by Matej Peklar
(Upcoming) album artwork by Matevž Praper

TOURING MY BACKYARD

When I was just a boy I yearned to rock n’ roll
But I didn’t realize I was living in a hole
Then I grew a tiny bit, my vision kind of cleared
I popped a beer, caressed my cage and never really feared

Now I’m the coolest guy around, the only god with such a sound
I sell my twopence sermons every day
My nails are black my eyes are lined my pants are tight oh I’m so fine
I gloat in dismal dismay and decay

I rented the only touring bus in this godforsaken place
And published in every goddamn paper I was touring my own space

Oh wow yippee my gosh and gee
I’m tourin’ my backyard
Rolling over my own mower
Bellyfolds o’ lard
Mounted mirrors on the walls
My backyard’s looking big
I’m bouncing reeling falling over
My excessive concert rig

In the mornings my head hurts, my double visions spin
But I know well that I’m the One so I embrace my sins
My proud dadland needs me to flash her stardom smiles
Distract the nation with pretence, wallow in shit piles

From the mountains to the sea
I sing my three-chord symphony
Nameless crowds beneath my feet
Look up at this astounding deed
My hair receding down my spine
But I still make these corpses mine
Dancing deaf to shit I spout
I dread what I have figured out

Announcement: Tit Augmented

I must admit I’m normally not a big fan of music album reissues, remixes, remasters, reboots, reduxes, super duper deluxe editions, and so on, as they – at least to me – often feel like money grabs that don’t have much “added value” to offer. However, for quite some time, I’ve nevertheless been itching to do exactly that with Cynicism Management’s first album, Tit: eventually release a new version of it, because it was originally recorded in painfully annoying “no-budget” and “no-decent-equipment” circumstances that, at the time, prevented me from recording “real” acoustic drums and forced me to resort to electronic drum pads instead. For me as a drummer, this was the most disappointing aspect of the project, quite difficult to put up with, even though it was just one of the many annoying compromises we, as a band, were forced to come to terms with at the time due to the chronic lack of resources. Additionally, my own musical equipment as well as expertise and experience as a music producer have improved significantly in the last decade (or, at least, that’s what I like to believe). Consequently, I was having a hard time listening to Tit, regardless of how happy I had been when the project had initially been completed in spite of all the obstacles. Don’t get me wrong: I still think that the songs are pretty good; I still like them and stand by what they represent even today; but, unfortunately, I was unable to enjoy them very much the way that they were. Instead, I couldn’t help imagining how they could and should sound like. Therefore, eventually “remaking” these tracks and reissuing the album, maybe in some convenient circumstances, has been one of my (admittedly vaguer) ideas that’s been gathering dust on one of the more forgotten shelves of my mind for years. In fact, predicting that I might eventually decide to go through with this, I took the opportunity to record the coveted “real” acoustic drums for this album already while I still lived in Izola, Slovenia – while our band had the fortune of rehearsing in a friend’s fully-equipped music studio that allowed for such a thing. I then shelved these recordings and let them gather dust as well.

Fast forward almost a decade… And here we are: I have recently found myself in a situation that actually warrants such an album re-release, and I have finally started working – for real, now – on a thoroughly “renovated” version of Cynicism Management’s first album, Tit. From here on in, I will call this reissue Tit Augmented, simply because the new version of the album will be much more than a simple “remaster”; it will also not be a “remix” in the usual sense of the word; it will definitely not be an extended release with any new (or live versions of) tracks; and the collocation is sort of fitting. The artwork will be different as well – in line with the cover of Cynicism Management – the novel (the corona/samizdat edition), it is based on the mixed-media artwork “Kraljica noči” by Rok Predin (© 2008, used with the permission of the artist):

The reason behind the decision to start working on this project now is extremely simple, but in order to explain it, I need to recap a little.

The Cynicism Management scheme was hatched more than ten years ago, towards the end of 2008. Disillusioned by our previous musical endeavours, we (my wife Monika and I, I have to admit) devised a “literary musical” experiment, initially just for fun: the idea was to write a novel featuring a fictional band called Cynicism Management and record music to go with it. Both parts of the project were eventually completed successfully. Cynicism Management went so far as to become a real band (even a live act – initially a six-piece line-up and later a quintet – for a while); and it released its first album, poetically titled Tit (a small bird of the Paridae family) back in 2011, well before the novel. Meanwhile, Cynicism Management – the novel was first published published by a UK e-book publisher that vanished a couple of years later, and subsequently reissued as an e-book on most e-book platforms.

The last live incarnation of Cynicism Management – the live line-up was disbanded in 2012, when my wife and I decided to leave our native Slovenia and move to Berlin, Germany. Nevertheless, we kept working on the musical part of the project, though mercifully without the exasperating complexities of struggling to maintain a rather large and complicated high-tech prog rock act in the morbid quagmire that passes for today’s music and concert scene. Thus the band once again reverted to its studio-based form, and it currently consists of only three members: Monika Fritz on vocals; the first-rate Slovenian blues/jazz/fusion guitarist Jure Praper, who’s in charge of all those pesky odd-time guitar solos; and myself. (Yes, I have a large family that even sort of gets along most of the time, and in some ways we are a bit like the Cosa Nostra, I suppose.)

Cynicism Management – the band went on to release the single Opus 0 in 2012; the EP Shadow Chasers in 2013; and the second full-length album Pendulum Pet in 2015. On the other hand, Pendulum Pet – the novel was published in 2016 as well – as the second book in what was gradually turning into a sort of a (loose) series. What ties the novels together is the actual music by the band Cynicism Management, referenced in the novels, while the stories are – in spite of certain characters appearing in both novels – self-contained and can easily be read independently.

In 2017, while I was still writing my third (and at this point still unfinished) novel titled Dog Days and composing the music to go with it, Monika and I decided to raise anchor once again and move to the Canary Islands, the remotest part of the European Union that we could think of and much more pleasant than the ever more expensive and increasingly gentrified Berlin with all its hustle, bustle, and six-month winters featuring eternal darkness, constant drizzles, bone-chilling Siberian winds, and hence an overabundance of doom and gloom. The move resulted in my two-year hiatus from writing and music, as I focused on other things, mainly flat renovations, chilli pepper cultivation, and nature. This sabbatical has recently been interrupted by my unwavering friend Rick Harsch, who has kindly invited me to contribute to his experimental “communal” novel The Assassination of Olof Palme. Shortly after that, when I had already started writing again, I was utterly honoured that the publisher River Boat Books saw fit to include my debut novel Cynicism Management: A Rock & Roll Fable in its list of new releases for the summer/autumn of 2019. Due to this remarkable development, I can now once again envision finishing my third novel as well, because nothing could motivate me and spur me on as thoroughly and decisively as an outstanding publisher and a marvellous community of fellow writers.

The book’s eventual publication is also an excellent opportunity to “pre-release” Tit Augmented, which will initially be intended for the readers of the book exclusively: for a while, the new version of the album won’t be downloadable anywhere but on my official author website, and the songs will only be streamable from SoundCloud. Roughly a year later, in May 2021, the album will finally be – on the tenth anniversary of the original Tit – released for the general audience as well.

I would hereby like to thank my dear friend Rick Harsch and writer and publisher Peter Bellis, who gave me the well-measured kick in the butt I desperately needed to go through with this… As well as Matevž Praper, who has envisioned and drawn the augmented tit. The other contributors to this project are as follows:

Monika Fritz: vocals
Jan Urbanc: guitar
Borut Praper: drums, keyboards, programming, bass, guitar
Aljaž Tulimirović: guitar and bass on Iniquity; guitar on Herbal Haze; guitar, e-bow guitar and kazoo on The End of the Vilewood Road
Stojan Kralj: guitar on Herbal Haze
Jure Praper: lead guitar on Four-Circle Penile Substitute

All tracks written and arranged by Borut Praper, except Iniquity co-written by Aljaž Tulimirović
All lyrics by Borut Praper
Recorded, produced and mixed by Borut Praper
Vocals co-arranged by Monika Fritz
Mastering by Andrej Hrvatin

Recorded in Studio S.U.R., Izola (http://sur.si/)
Additional material recorded by Stojan Kralj in Juice Plant Studio, Maribor
Drums recorded in Yan Baray’s studio in Izola in 2013

And now, without further ado, here are all the augmented tracks [updated when they were finally finished in September 2020]:

SUR albums now on streaming platforms

As of this month, the “main” albums (but not soundtracks for theatre performances and audiovisual works – those are available from our Bandcamp page) by one of our former bands, SUR, should be available on almost all streaming platforms like Deezer, Spotify, etc., as well as in most digital stores. The first album by SUR, “Na jug” – which also happened to be the first time that any of my music was published on a “real”, tangible, physical CD – was 15 years old this May! Holy crap, how time flies…




And now for something completely different!

It now appears that the “slight possibility that my first novel might soon(ish) get released on paper, as an actual, tangible, physical book” that I mentioned in my previous (longwinded, as usual) post will become a fact after all. Here’s an inspirational quote for this occasion:

The whole jeremiad that is Cynicism Management (the novel) is going to be published by River Boat Books this summer – where else than on the banks of the Mississippi River. Hell, maybe NOW the devil I keep looking for might appear to me at those fabled crossroads after all, so that I can finally sign the infernal contract…?

Video by Orazio Ferrari & Giuseppe Guarrera

I’ve recently had the pleasure of doing a field audio recording for the video of Orazio Ferrari (double bass) and Giuseppe Guarrera (piano), performing “Le Cygne” by Camille Saint-Saëns. Even though we kept complications to the minimum (the duet was only recorded with two overhead mics), I’m very happy with the result. The video was directed, shot and edited by Giulio Tarantino.

“Juice Connection” archives released on Bandcamp

I’ve recently had loads of fun rummaging through the ancient Ground Zero material (cassette tape recordings of my first band from the 1990s), which I’ve then uploaded to Bandcamp so that all of us former band members could drift down the memory lane a bit. I also took the time to write a brief biography of that band and posted it here. As the whole undertaking has stirred up a lot of pleasant memories as well as a few enthusiastic responses, I kept digging and also uploaded all of the Juice Connection soundtracks, recorded between 1998 and 2002, to Bandcamp.

Juice Connection was the main creative outlet for me for a while, after the unfortunate if completely prosaic demise of Ground Zero. The yarn of Juice Connection started out back in 1998 when my former Ground Zero bandmate, Marko Djukić, invited me to write and record music for a theatre performance he would be appearing in. As it was clear to me that I lacked the necessary knowledge as well as equipment to pull this off successfully by myself, I approached a fellow musician Stojan Kralj with the idea. He agreed and became my trusted mentor and associate, most intensely so during the next few years. We formed the Juice Connection music production team with only us as its full-time members, and went on to produce – between 1998 and 2002 – original soundtracks for twelve full-length theatre performances, a couple of shorter theatre pieces and a TV show about contemporary dance theatre. Later the extended Juice Connection lineup (with myself on drums, Kralj on bass and guitar, plus Aljaž Tulimirović on guitar, Samo Pečar on the second bass and Andrej Hrvatin on percussion) also prepared an extensive setlist of live material and performed at a couple of live gigs. Unfortunately those adorably peculiar sonic excursions have never been particularly “commercially successful” (go figure), nor have they been documented – it would have been a real treat if any recordings of that musical experimentation, sound terrorism and downright jokery existed, but of course we haven’t recorded anything. No – I don’t know what we were thinking.

Be that as it may, while working on various theatre performances, Juice Connection has collaborated with a diverse assortment of guest musicians, depending on what was required for a certain project. Here are the twelve original soundtrack albums that have been compiled almost ten years ago, and now – nineteen years after the creation of the first soundtrack – republished on Bandcamp:


1998: Sebastjan Starič: THE TUNNEL

The original soundtrack, written and recorded in 1998, for the full-length physical theatre performance “The Tunnel” by the director and choreographer Sebastjan Starič. This is the first project of the Juice Connection team. Much of the material for this performance was recorded live. Almost exactly half of it was composed in advance, while the other half consists of impromptu jam sessions. A sequencer and quite a bit of electronics were already used for this soundtrack – back then still hardware samplers and synthesizers.
MUSIC: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper. Co-authors at impromptu jam sessions: see below for details
ARRANGEMENTS: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper. Co-authors at impromptu jam sessions: see below for details
MUSICIANS: Stojan Kralj: keyboards, programming, bass, guitar, vocals; Borut Praper: keyboards, programming, drums, vocals; Zmago Turica: violin on 02, 13; Marko Zorec: guitar on 03; Janez Vouk: trumpet on 04, 05, 12, 15; Branko Rožman: accordion on 08; Miran Stergulec: guitar on 11, 12, 14, 16; vocals on 17; Andreja Pak: piano on 13; Rok Predin: vocals on 17
IMPROMPTU JAM SESSIONS: Kralj (keyboards) / Praper (keyboards) on 01; Kralj (bass) / Praper (drums) / Zorec (guitar) on 03; Kralj (bass) / Praper (drums) on 06; Kralj (bass) / Praper (drums) / Stergulec (guitar) on 11, 12, 14, 16
PRODUCED BY: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper


1999: Branko Potočan: AS LAST YEAR’S SNOW

The original soundtrack, written and recorded in 1999, for the full-length physical theatre performance “As Last Year’s Snow” by the director and choreographer Branko Potočan. This is the second project of the Juice Connection team. Much of the material for this performance was recorded live, although a lot of electronic instruments were also used – still mostly hardware samplers and synthesisers back then. The basic material was often recorded at jam sessions, while additional elements were added afterwards, as the material was processed and edited.
MUSIC: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper, except Stojan Kralj & Aljaž Tulimirović – track 08. Co-authors at impromptu jam sessions: see below for details
ARRANGEMENTS: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper. Co-authors at impromptu jam sessions: see below for details
LYRICS: Branko Potočan on 04; Sebastjan Starič on 12
MUSICIANS: Stojan Kralj: bass, guitar, keyboards, programming, various toys; Borut Praper: keyboards, programming, drums, percussion / various toys; Sebastjan Starič: vocals on 04, 12; Aljaž Tulimirović: guitar on 08; Branko Rožman: accordion on 06; Andrej Hrvatin: percussion on 06
IMPROMPTU JAM SESSIONS: Kralj (guitar, various toys) / Praper (drums, percussion, various toys) on 04; Kralj (bass) / Praper (drums) / Rožman (accordion) / Hrvatin (percussion) on 06
PRODUCED BY: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper


1999: Sebastjan Starič: OH IT’S SPRING AGAIN

The original soundtrack, written and recorded in 1999, for the full-length physical theatre performance “Oh It’s Spring Again” by the director and choreographer Sebastjan Starič. This is the third project of the Juice Connection team. The material for this performance was roughly half electronic and half live recordings. Work became much easier with better software, especially software samplers. Like before, material was often recorded at live sessions, after which additional elements were added and the material was edited.
MUSIC: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper, except Andrej Hrvatin – track 05. Co-authors at impromptu jam sessions: see below for details
ARRANGEMENTS: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper, except Andrej Hrvatin – track 05. Co-authors at impromptu jam sessions: see below for details
MUSICIANS: Stojan Kralj: keyboards, programming, guitar, mandolin; Borut Praper: keyboards, programming, drums; Zmago Turica: violin on 04, 07; Andrej Hrvatin: percussion on 05; Miran Stergulec: guitar on 09
IMPROMPTU JAM SESSIONS: Stergulec (guitar) / Kralj (bass) / Praper (drums/percussion) on 09
PRODUCED BY: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper


2000: Dušan Teropšič: THE FLIES

The original soundtrack, written and recorded in 2000, for the full-length physical theatre performance “The Flies” by the director and choreographer Dušan Teropšič. This is the fourth project of the Juice Connection team. The music for The Flies was mostly electronic and experimental, and some of the sound effects were recorded in the field. Since the soundtrack for the actual performance was a bit shorter than usual and because some of the less interesting sound effects were removed from this release, this album also includes several bonus tracks, consisting of the material recorded around that time, which was not used in any of the finalised performances – what the team called the “outtakes”.
MUSIC: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper
ARRANGEMENTS: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper
MUSICIANS: Stojan Kralj: keyboards, programming, bass, guitar; Borut Praper: keyboards, programming, drums
PRODUCED BY: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper


2000: Branko Potočan: THE DOORS

The original soundtrack, written and recorded in 2000, for the full-length physical theatre performance “The Doors” by the director and choreographer Branko Potočan. The fifth project of the Juice Connection team. Most of the music for The Doors was electronic with live elements, recorded at jam sessions. A part of the soundtrack was performed live on stage by Andrej Hrvatin (percussion) and Borut Praper (drums). Unfortunately, no recordings of the material, performed live on stage, exist. All of the tracks on this album were written and recorded for The Doors; however, the final version of the soundtrack for the actual performance did not include all of them.
MUSIC: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper. Co-authors at impromptu jam sessions: see below for details
ARRANGEMENTS: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper. Co-authors at impromptu jam sessions: see below for details
MUSICIANS: Stojan Kralj: keyboards, programming, bass, fretless bass, guitar; Borut Praper: keyboards, programming, drums; Barbara Šantl: vocals and lyrics on 03; Katja Turica: vocals on 04; Aljaž Tulimirović: guitar on 05, 09, 13; Sebastjan Starič: vocals on 05; Zmago Turica: violin on 10, 15; Andrej Hrvatin: percussion on 11, 15, 16; Janez Vouk: trumpet on 14; Miran Stergulec: guitar on 18
IMPROMPTU JAM SESSIONS: Kralj (bass) / Praper (drums) / Tulimirović (guitar) on 09; Kralj (bass) / Praper (drums) / Tulimirović (guitar) on 13
PRODUCED BY: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper


2000: Sebastjan Starič: THE RECYCLED

This album actually contains soundtracks for two full-length theatre performances: “The Recycled” (2000) and “Planet DIC” (2001) by the theatre group POZITIV, directed and choreographed by Sebastjan Starič and produced/mentored by Drago Pintarič. The collection also includes a couple of tracks written and recorded at the theatre music workshops in Izola, mentored by Stojan Kralj and Borut Praper at that time, which were not used in either The Recycled or Planet DIC. The Recycled was a joint project of Borut Bernik – Torulsson and Juice Connection, while Planet DIC was written and recorded by Juice Connection.
MUSIC: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper, except Borut Bernik – track 02, and Aljaž Tulimirović & Borut Praper & Samo Pečar – tracks 03 and 08
ARRANGEMENTS: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper, except Borut Bernik – track 02, and Aljaž Tulimirović & Borut Praper & Samo Pečar – tracks 03 and 08
MUSICIANS: Stojan Kralj: keyboards, programming, bass, fretless bass, guitar; Borut Praper: keyboards, programming, drums, darbouka; Tomaž Nedoh: soprano sax on 01, 03, 08; Borut Bernik – Torulsson: keyboards, programming on 02; Aljaž Tulimirović: guitar on 03, 08; Samo Pečar: bass on 03, 08; Andrej Hrvatin: percussion on 03, 08
PRODUCED BY: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper, except Borut Bernik – track 02, and Borut Bernik & Borut Praper – track 01, 04


2001: Sebastjan Starič: CALL ME CRAZY

The original soundtrack, written and recorded in 2001, for the full-length physical theatre performance “Call Me Crazy” by the director and choreographer Sebastjan Starič. Most of the music for Call Me Crazy was electronic / experimental, except for a couple of live instrumental tracks. Some sound effects were recorded in the field and later processed in the studio.
MUSIC: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper
ARRANGEMENTS: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper
MUSICIANS: Stojan Kralj: guitar, keyboards, programming; Borut Praper: keyboards, programming; Janez Vouk: trumpet on 03; Andrej Hrvatin: clarinet on 11
PRODUCED BY: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper


2001: Dušan Teropšič: THE SWAMP

The original soundtrack, written and recorded in 2001, for the full-length physical theatre performance “The Swamp” by the director and choreographer Dušan Teropšič. This performance was inspired by the ballet Swan Lake by P.I. Tchaikovsky, and certain tracks on this soundtrack were also based on some of the most famous music from that ballet (tracks 1, 6, 8 and 11). Most of the music for The Swamp was electronic, except for certain live elements and a single live improvised instrumental track, where drums & guitar were recorded at an impromptu jam session, while bass and keyboards were added later.
MUSIC: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper
ARRANGEMENTS: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper
MUSICIANS: Stojan Kralj: guitar, bass, keyboards, programming; Borut Praper: keyboards, programming, drums; Janez Vouk: trumpet on 09, 10; Marko Zorec: guitar on 09; Andrej Hrvatin: percussion on 10
IMPROMPTU JAM SESSIONS: Kralj (guitar) / Praper (drums) on 12
PRODUCED BY: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper


2001: Tanika Šajatovič: SUPERSEXY

The original soundtrack, written and recorded in 2001, for the full-length theatre performance “Supersexy” by the writer and director Tanika Šajatovič. Most of the music for Supersexy was electronic, except for some live elements.
MUSIC: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper
ARRANGEMENTS: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper
MUSICIANS: Stojan Kralj: bass, keyboards, programming; Borut Praper: keyboards, programming; Janez Vouk: trumpet on 08; Andrej Hrvatin: percussion on 08
PRODUCED BY: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper


2001: Branko Potočan: PERKMANDELJC – THE VANISHING SPIRIT

The original soundtrack, written and recorded in 2001, for the full-length physical theatre performance “Perkmandeljc – The Vanishing Spirit” by the choreographer and director Branko Potočan. Perkmandeljc – The Vanishing Spirit was a performance inspired by the life of miners in a small industrial community where the director used to live. The concept of the soundtrack was that it should be reminiscent of a small brass band of suspicious pedigree, therefore most of the music for this performance was performed by brass and woodwind instruments. The soundtrack also includes a few electronic / programmed tracks and atmospheres.
MUSIC: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper, except Andreja Dajčman – track 08 (arranged by Borut Praper)
ARRANGEMENTS: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper
MUSICIANS: Stojan Kralj: keyboards, programming; Borut Praper: keyboards, programming; Miha Vavti: sax; Janez Vouk: trumpet; Matjaž Rebolj: oboe; Zdenko Korenjak: clarinet; Iztok Kološa: tuba
PRODUCED BY: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper


2002: Nick Pickard: WALKING ON EGGSHELLS

The original soundtrack, written and recorded in 2002, for the full-length theatre performance “Walking on Eggshells” by the director Nick Pickard, written by Michael Pigott. Walking on Eggshells was an intriguing collaboration with the Australian director Nick Pickard. The performance placed a lot of emphasis on dialogues, so the soundtrack featured many atmospheres, experimental sound design pieces and sound effects as well as several melodic tracks. Many sounds were recorded in the field (in the basement where this performance was first staged) and used for the soundtrack, either raw or heavily processed. The director wanted to include some hints of folk song themes in the performance, so a small choir performing folk songs from the Koroška region was recorded, and then heavily processed in the studio. These pieces were entitled “Zee Koroshka Sessions”.
MUSIC: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper
ARRANGEMENTS: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper
MUSICIANS: Stojan Kralj: keyboards, programming; Borut Praper: keyboards, programming; Matjaž Rebolj: oboe on 02; Zmago Turica: violin on 03; Otokar Praper: vocals on 04, 07, 13, 14; Peter Praper: vocals on 04, 07, 13, 14; Jože Praper: vocals on 04, 07, 13, 14; Zdenka Praper: vocals on 04, 07, 13, 14; Marjan Popič – Ožbej: vocals on 04, 07, 13, 14; Zdenko Korenjak: clarinet on 08; Miha Vavti: sax on 12
PRODUCED BY: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper


2002: Sebastjan Starič: LUST

The original soundtrack, written and recorded in 2002, for the full-length dance theatre performance “Lust” by the director and choreographer Sebastjan Starič. Lust was the last project of the Juice Connection team. The first versions of the tracks Lahko te čutim (here entitled I Can Feel You and sung by Urška Samec), Ne premorem besed (here entitled Speechless and sung by Mojca Žerjal), Zarja (here entitled BooM) and Nosi me (here entitled Revolve) were written and recorded for this performance towards the end of 2001. While working on these tracks, the idea for the project SUR started taking shape, which is why the soundtrack for this performance is regarded as a joint project of Juice Connection and SUR. The “evolved” versions of these four tracks, sung by Neža Trobec Teropšič, were later published on the first album by SUR, entitled Na jug and released on a physical CD in 2004. After this performance, Stojan kept working on his own projects, while Borut and the lyricist Marko Djukić concentrated on their newly-founded group, which went on to write and record music for 13 theatre performances, a variety of other audiovisual works, as well as release its two “tangible” albums – Na jug (2004) and Druga stran (2007). The former members of the Juice Connection team still collaborate on a regular basis and contribute to each other’s projects.
MUSIC: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper
ARRANGEMENTS: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper
MUSICIANS: Stojan Kralj: bass, keyboards, programming; Borut Praper: keyboards, programming; Marko Djukić: lyrics on 01, 02, 08, 10; Urška Samec: vocals on 01, 02, 08; Andreja Žel: accordion on 04, 07; Mojca Žerjal: vocals on 10; Janez Vouk: trumpet on 13
PRODUCED BY: Stojan Kralj & Borut Praper


After the last Juice Connection project, I concentrated on the band SUR that I founded together with the lyricist, dramatist and theatre actor Marko Djukić, while Stojan worked on other things. However, Kralj and I have continued working together on various projects to date.

Stojan Kralj and I – the core of the Juice Connection team – have never limited ourselves in terms of what style we would or would not dabble into. While writing music for all the diverse performances we have worked on, we have proved time and again that we can be extremely versatile – sometimes to the point of ending up with exceedingly schizophrenic albums. One has to keep in mind, though, that it is hard to imagine what the music is for and why it is what it is if you don’t actually see the performance. However, we have also strongly believed in collaboration and kept involving other musicians in each of our individual efforts, because that seemed to produce the best and sometimes most surprising results, if done properly. Thus we have recorded a vast variety of tracks ranging from jazz to metal, from ethno to pop, from trip hop to swing, from experimental, avant-garde, atmospheric and ambient pieces to drum & bass, industrial, and even orchestral music and brass band arrangements.

Because of the extremely short development times for most performances, lack of technical and financial resources, and therefore quite a lot of creative as well as technical improvisation involved in each project, the production quality of the resulting work of the Juice Connection team may vary somewhat, especially by today’s standards, while the tracks recorded at impromptu jam sessions may often be less than perfect in terms of technical execution, of course. Nevertheless, these recordings are documents of certain times and circumstances and should be perceived as such. Ultimately we got things done: all the performances were staged successfully, we’ve certainly had lots of fun working on them, and that’s what it all boils down to in the end.

On the tenth anniversary of the first soundtrack we had ever recorded, Kralj and I decided to sift through the material and share it all on Jamendo, in order for it to be documented and perhaps used again by someone who may find it useful. Now, almost twenty years after The Tunnel, it was high time to release this on Bandcamp as well, and post the whole collection as well as a short biography in one place, so that the various facts and names of great musicians who have contributed to all of this don’t get forgotten.