Martin Sagadin’s enigmatic debut album, Martin Iz Zgornje Bele, is sure to be one of the most talked about folk records in recent memory. Well known in New Zealand as a filmmaker and music video director with a poetic and surreal visual style, Sagadin’s music becomes an extension of their artistry, evoking vivid musical imagery executed with finesse and grace.
Sagadin was born in Kranj, Slovenia, but has lived in Aotearoa, New Zealand, for the past 19 years. In that time, they developed a reputation as the go-to music video director for artists like Aldous Harding, Tiny Ruins, Marlon Williams, The Bats and many others. With such worthy contemporaries, it’s all the more notable that Martin Iz Zgornje Bele sounds utterly different from any of those artists’ work.
The name of the album refers to the village in Slovenia that Martin grew up in. The choice to sing in their native Slovenian language was an intuitive pathway towards communicating rarefied and borderless emotions. The album paints a collection of delicate moments, sparsely arranged with fan organ, guitar, mandolin, recorders, cello and a small orchestra of instruments. Martin’s voice is frail and with faults, but has power through a rarely-heard sincerity and naïve presentation.
The album was produced by Brooke Singer (French for Rabbits) and features Ben Lemi (Trinity Roots, Bret McKenzie) and Xanthe Rook (Recitals) on the clarinet, Liz Stokes (The Beths) on flugelhorn and Charlotte Forrester (Womb) on cello, making it a completely unique sounding collection of songs. It was picked up by Ba Da Bing Records in the USA, while Melted Ice Cream is releasing it in New Zealand and Australia.
Martin Iz Zgornje Bele calls through the years, piecing together fragments of sound into transcendent, glowing swells of emotion.
Label
Ba Da Bing Records / Melted Ice Cream
Genre
Alternative LP - SIDE A
Dom
Draga, Predraga Moja
Hvala
Pesem Za Jokanje
Jesenska Pesem
Volk #1
Sto Vrat
LP - SIDE B
Zdaj si Nazaj & Reprise
Volk #2
Med Zvezdami
Ne Boj Se / Pokai Mi
Daj Mi Bog Sree

SOUTHBOUND