MENT Festival
Ljubljana, Slovenia
29-31 March 2023
The ninth edition of the Slovenian boutique festival MENT Ljubljana bridges seemingly distant sides of Europe.
On Friday night, Menza Pri Koritu, a grassroots barn-looking venue occupying a former military barrack, is chock-a-block. It’s raining outside and, despite lukewarm spring air, many of the festival-goers prefer the musky warmth and smoky atmosphere of the somewhat shabby-on-purpose club. A six-piece band is getting ready to play while foreign visitors rub shoulders with each other. One of the three guitarists wears a flower-power shirt, a signpost to the psych-rock manoeuvres the six would undertake during the show. The name of the band is Lufthansa, a reference to a notoriously unpunctual flight operator connecting the Western and Eastern sides of Europe.
Coming from North Macedonia, Lufthansa are soaked in influences from both sides. Still, their sound is exotic. While the vocalist occasionally dances like Bobby Gillespie, melodies and textures often hint at Balkan traditional music and Greek ’60s psych outfit Aphrodite’s Child.
The geographical location defines the status of Slovenia as a gate to Western Europe for the Balkan world. It takes two hours to drive from Venice airport and not much longer from Vienna. From the East, Croatia and Hungary are the closest neighbours. Hence, the all-inclusive name of the festival refers to a Latin suffix that implies a quality or condition such as enjoyment or fulfilment. Both define the atmosphere of Ljubljana, with its warm hues, mild Mediterranean climate and lush greenery. With a few concrete blocks from the Socialist era, the city centre combines flamboyant Italian architecture and somewhat Nordic charm, echoing such distant places as Bath and Vilnius.
Yet, the festival venues are off-the-beaten-track. The majority of them are gentrified spaces in proximity to the downtown: Kino Šiška, the ’60s modernist building of the former cinema, Metelkova cultural centre occupying former military barracks, Cukrarna Gallery at the 19th-century sugar refinery, Stara mestna elektrarna (The Old Power Station). The brick building of the latter conceals a dark venue with a womb-of-a-whale vibe. A perfect place for an art residency, edgy electronic music and theatre of absurd performances.
While Kačis doesn’t fall into any of the categories above, they merge with the space. The trio consisting of Ana Kravanja, Samo Kutin (both are members of Širom, a collective so much favoured by the UK press) and Tea Vidmar (The Balkan Experience of Song and Ritual) perform strange magic with vocals mimicking sounds of nature and impressionistic arrangement on Balkan tambura. What seems to be an ad hoc psycho-folk experiment actually has a prearranged structure. Still, it’s an indescribably powerful evocation.
Playing at Dvorana DijaŠki Dom Tabor, a hidden hall on the premises of the student dormitory, X.U.L. conjure up a Lynchian atmosphere. The frontman reads poems while the rest of the band creates an imaginative soundscape. The final track, Alarm, cites a piece by Slovenian modernist author Srečko Kosovel, addressing the state of Europe at the end of World War One. In the finale of the composition, the sombre string and piano arrangement transforms into a wailing drone that reminds of sirens. Crimson stage lighting penetrates the dark space adding to the climax.
Although MENT is first and foremost the place to explore local talent, the event attracts international acts featuring artists like La Femme this year and Yves Tumor previously.
At first glance, La Femme seem to fit into a cliche. Yé-yé, soundtracks to Jacques Cousteau’s documentary series and Francophone electropop, e.g. Air. There is a deliberate eccentricity too, with the frontman treating his keyboard as a guitar when playing solo. Along these lines, other layers emerge. With intense oscillating keyboards, the final song suggests experimental psychedelia and krautrock. It is preceded by the band‘s farewell and the notion of the potential apocalypse, a possibility that has been pervading the air since 2020. A sudden shift from sweeter and more superficial synth-pop to a more sophisticated sound doesn‘t take the audience aback. Everyone succumbs to the translucent sonic waves and takes the band‘s advice to enjoy the moment.
Although nonverbally, the Latvian four-piece collective Nesen also suggests focusing on the now. The kind of immersion they create on stage is yet different to that of La Femme. Playing at the ground flour screening space of Kino Šiška, they transmit electricity through the thick water column of sound. Heavy guitar riffs and drum patterns are balanced with a wash of keyboards and gossamer-esque vocals.
Here and there, MENT is a fertile ground for bookers seeking unconventional talent. Excellent audio-visual duo Etceteral blends disobedient free jazz with krautrock. The kaleidoscopic patterns on the screen behind them remind of a test card on a TV screen. It sums up their music which has a similar hypnotic quality. From Estonia, Puuluup perform folk compositions on hiiu kannel, a traditional string instrument, with punk fervour. Latvian solo artist Elizabete Balčus leads her audience to phantasmagorical worlds soundtracked by intricately produced dream pop featuring inventive instruments such as “talking” fruits and vegetables, operated by Bare Conductive touch board.
Along with contemplation over sophisticated and interesting music, the festival brings joy. Tallinn-based producers Mart Avi and Ajukaja, aka Raul Saaremets, play at Klub Gromka, a venue with unfriendly sound equipment and appropriately dim light. It’s been ten years since the author of the review saw the duo playing previously. Despite the 25-year age gap, Avi and Saaremets don’t change physically as if the two have been drinking a magic potion. Playing their recent single, bouncy digi-dub ballad Scorpio, both remain in their element, with Mart the crooner expressing the sensual side of music through gestures/vocals and Raul the DJ on the decks, mysteriously still and concentrated. An air-water combo.
As the current festival is the ninth edition of MENT, the well-curated programme shouldn’t be a surprise. Yet, it is refreshing and eye-opening to experience such generosity and creative diversity. Perhaps, Slovenian air and the view on the Julian Alps add to that feeling but that seems to be a taste of freedom.
Photo: Saša Krajnc (Lufthansa), Marcel Obal, Tina Stariha (X.U.L., La Femme), Katja Goljat (Kačis), Matjaz Rust (Ajukaja and Mart Avi).
More information about MENT Ljubljana is on the festival’s official site.
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All words by Irina Shtries, you can find her archive here
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