The Slovenian septet Oholo! is a collective that focuses on the intersection of improvised and composed music, and features improvisers from the Ljubljana experimental scene associated with the Sploh label (which stands for Sound, Performing, Listening, Observing, Hearing), with an unconventional lineup of two sax players, two double bass players, guitarist, violinist and drummer. This collective’s title means haughty and faithfully captures the spirit of its aesthetics. Šiba (Whip) is the sophomore album of Oholo!, following Mnogobolje (Much Better, Sploh, 2020), and it was recorded at Cankarjev dom Vrhnika in April 2023.

The unique lineup of Oholo! suggests an urgent and chaotic blend of joyful Balkan folk music and cerebral, contemporary music with strong influences of the always irreverent Frank Zappa and John Zorn. Three pieces – «Šiv», «Kiparka» and «Ga ni», are full of sudden, paradoxical detours, shifts and jumps with high degrees of freedom for all the musicians to push toward their own extremes. But at the same time, the music eventually gravitates into an uplifting, Mingus-like rhythmic drive, and is always equipped with generous doses of subversive humor and irony.

The centerpiece «Kino uho II» (Cinema Ear II) tells a completely different story. The double bass player Tomaž Grom adds electronics to the sonic playground of Oholo! and sketches an emotional ballad which is an extension of the original ballad he played as a duo with local drummer hero Zlatko Kaučič (The Ear Is the Shadow of the Eye, Sploh, 2019). This piece is expanded into a mysterious, dramatic-cinematic narrative, strangely spiced with a hypnotic reggae-funk pulse.

Eyal Hareuveni

Vid Drašler (drums, percussion), Jošt Drašler (double bass), Tomaž Grom (double bass, electronics), Andraž Mazi (electric guitar), Marko Jenič (violin), Andrej Fon (tenor saxophone, clarinet), Jure Boršič (alto saxophone, clarinet)