Mirna Bogdanović - Confrontation (2020)

Confrontation, the debut album by Slovenian vocalist Mirna Bogdanovic, will be released on December 18, 2020 via Klaeng Records in Cologne. Why Germany? Probably, this is natural for Mirna, because the young singer studied at the Jazz Institute in Berlin and has been a part of the Berlin new-jazz crowd for a number of years. She recorded her debut album with an octet of her German colleagues, with many of whom she studied together, and the saxophonist Vanya Slavin (he was born in Germany, but, judging by his name, has Slavic roots) not only participated in the recording as a musician, but also became a producer for Confrontation and also did post-production.

So ten tracks. The author of all the compositions is Mirna Bogdanovich herself. She prefers songs with lyrics, rather than syllabic singing, which is typical for many avant-garde singers. For Mirna, the meaning of her songs is important, but, of course, music is no less important. As the singer herself admits, she is less interested in purely vocal or purely instrumental music. The interaction of voice and instruments is the basis of her musical philosophy, in which the style has no hard boundaries, although it is based on jazz. Once upon a time, Myrna began with a classical piano and only then moved on to vocals, so she understands well the importance of both vocal and instrumental components.

From the very first tracks on the album, you can see how these ideas are being implemented. In the opening song Melancholia, the singer's voice finds fundamental support in the saxophone parts, in the next song June, the piano performs on the foreground, and in Never Believed, which begins with an acapella intro (two more vocalists, Paulina Peak and Dora Osterloch, participated in the recording of the album together with Mirna), in the future, the sound of the guitar plays a very important role. The art of balance is the most important feature of Mirna Bogdanovich's music. Is it perfect on all tracks? Probably not. But let's not forget that this is only the beginning of a creative path, and everything suggests that a talented singer and composer has all the data to bring him to shine in new works.