Ivana Novak in Oblike duha + Chris Eckman & Boštjan Narat

Ivana Novak, music, voice, piano; Tilen Stepišnik, acoustic and electric guitars; Miha Friedrich, drums, percussion; Mitja Centrih, bass guitar; Lara Bešić, cello
Boštjan Narat, voice, guitar; Chris Eckman, voice, guitar

Just before the Slovenian Cultural Holiday, the Tuesday Clubbing series will host two concerts. The first features Ivana Novak and her band's musical settings of poems by Boris A. Novak. His exceptional collection of poetic forms, Oblike duha (Forms of the Spirit, Mladinska knjiga, 2016), contains more than two hundred verse forms. Boris A. Novak wrote a poem in each one. Often addressing the theme of songwriting, these poems bring to life poetic devices – rhyme, rhythm, sound, silence... Both because of their phonetic quality and their connotative meaning they just beg being set to music. The concert is dedicated to pop music adaptations of poetry forms from around the world – from rondos to Japanese tankas.

Chris Eckman is a singer-songwriter, poet, and longtime driving force behind the iconic The Walkabouts. At the CD Club, in a fascinating encounter of their musical and poetic energies, the American who made Ljubljana his adopted home meets Boštjan Narat, singer-songwriter and leader of the Katalena group. On the occasion of their first musical partnership in January 2023 at the Siti teater, the artists recorded the song Always Nearby. It is a cover of Od daleč, a composition Narat wrote nine years ago for Neca Falk. The song lent its name to a joint album but was never released as a single. Until now. In this new version, it is sung by Chris Eckman.