TiTiTi is the Slovenian free jazz trio of alto sax player and clarinetist Jure Boršič and the two Drašlers – double bass player Jošt Drašler and drummer Vid Drašler, a triangular derivative of the local septet Oholo! These three musicians are former students of Slovenian free jazz and free-improv pioneer Zlatko Kaučič. Izba is the sophomore album of this trio, now expanded into a quartet with Serbian pianist Marina Džukljev, who guested on TiTiTi’s debut album Štafelaj (Zavod Sploh, 2022) and the trio’s performances. The album was recorded at Imputlevel Studio in San Biagio di Callalta, Italy, in December 2024.
Izba (the archaic Slavic expression for room) is titled after the name of a former venue in Novi Sad, where some of the members first met Džukljev. The addition of Džukljev transformed the urgent and intense dynamics of TiTiTi into more focused, complex, and richer, still restless, hectic, and searching for its own cosmic freedom, but surprisingly orchestral. Slovenian poet and critic Muanis Sinanović (who wrote the liner notes to Štafelaj) characterized in his new liner notes the quartet sounds as an «inarticulate cry of a becoming creature calling for uprising, at once determined and neurotic».
Izba offers six pieces that highlight the mature sound of TiTiTi, ranging from modern jazz to fiery free jazz, and openly emotional, lyrical, and often folky melodies, and from the structured to the spontaneously improvised. But the music is always channeled in a totally unpredictable, almost subversive dynamics and enjoys the strong-minded voices of Boršič, the Drašlers, and Džukljev.
The cover artwork by fellow Slovenian visual artist Matej Stupica captures the rich, often chaotic sonic universe of TiTiTi, and deepens the quartet’s audio-visual vision, after its debut album was inspired by the great Slovenian painter Jože Tisnikar (1928-1998). TiTiTi’s title is an homage to the name of the painter (Ti-Ti-Ti-Ti-Tisnikar).
Eyal Hareuveni
Marina Džukljev (piano), Jošt Drašler (double bass), Jure Boršič (alto saxophone, clarinet), Vid Drašler (drums)
