Crucial Encounters
Mladi Raziskovalci IV. – Brina Kren – Crucial Encounters
Tilen Zlatnar (percussion)
Jonatan Hudnik (oboe, piano)
Maj Brinovec (saxophone)
Brina Kren (saxophone)
in
12
12.1
12.2
12.3
N
N.1
N.2
over
N.3
N.4
N.5
I
out
beyond
Compositions N and I by Crucial Encounters, all others by Brina Kren. The music was created during the festival workshop Mladi raziskovalci IV. / Young Researchers IV. mentored by Dré A. Hočevar.
Recorded at the 26th Jazz Cerkno festival on 16th July 2021
Recorded by Iztok Zupan
Mix and mastering by Dave Darlington
Produced by Dré A. Hočevar
Design by Tjaša Travižan
Liner notes by Brina Kren
Live at Jazz Cerkno logo by Milan Erič
Released in December 2021 by Jazz Cerkno Records in coproduction with .abeceda Institute. Supported by the Ministry of Culture of Slovenia.
Brina Kren’s debut album from the program Young Researchers IV.
Jazz Cerkno has had a varied year, the central part of which was the successful 26th edition of the Jazz Cerkno festival. As has been the custom for several years, we end the calendar year with a discographic edition with recordings made at the festival. This time it is the album Young Researchers IV. – Brina Kren – Crucial Encounters by young saxophonist and composer Brina Kren, who, as part of the music residency Young Researchers IV., performed with her quartet Crucial Encounters. Her ensemble also includes Tilen Zlatnar (percussion), Jonatan Hudnik (oboe, piano) and Maj Brinovec (saxophone). With this program and the discographic release, our festival fulfills one of its missions: to encourage the creativity of younger, mostly not yet established Slovenian musicians. They gather within the residency under the mentorship of Dré A. Hočevar. At the residency, musicians gather and – each time under the direction of another leader – form the ensemble and prepare a concert program to be performed at our festival.
Brina Kren has performed twice at the festival as a member of other ensembles in the Young Researchers program. In 2019 she was part of the band code::source under the direction of Gašper Livk, and in 2020 in the Tobija Hudnik’s band equilibrium as insta_bility. Although Kren is already present on two albums recorded at residencies, this is her first album as a band leader. In the liner notes for the album with extremely subtle compositions, in which musicians skillfully maintain a balance between the rigor of avant-garde classical music and jazz improvisation, she wrote, among other things: “New ways of existence and coexistence are realized only through experiencing them.”, with which she emphasizes the importance of joint co-creation and music making. Like previous recordings from the Young Researchers program, the album, available on CD and online, is published in the series Live at Jazz Cerkno. The album is dedicated to our long-time collaborator and friend Dario Cortese, who passed away this year. Dario was the initiator of Live at Jazz Cerkno series, and also the founder of PureZen Records, in collaboration with which we released the first three albums from the Young Researchers program.