18.6.18

"Vse Moje Besede" by Majda Sepe (1978)


Just like her contemporary Gabi Novak in Croatia, Slovenian artist Majda Sepe started with cute, little swing ditties and imitations of Doris Day back in the early 1960s - listening to those early recordings, listener would never guess ladies would eventually grow into such interesting artists. Both of them were married to highly respected musicians and both gradually turned to pop chanson, thought Novak didn't have to fight language barriers - performing in Slovenian language was obstacle that unfortunately limited Sepe's appeal only to homegrown audiences. She was often guest on pop festivals in Opatija and Split, but to my knowledge with underwhelming results, it was obvious that local audiences had their own favourites and guests performances were always just perfunctory.

I recall my parents admiring Sepe's good looks (she started as a model) but they never had high opinion of her singing talent. Which today I find very strange as her music was very lovely indeed - this collection presents majority of her most beloved songs, always very sophisticated and quite beautiful, with interesting lyrics and haunting music mostly composed by her husband Mojmir Sepe (celebrated Jazz musician who wrote schlagers for his wife). "Med Iskrenimi Ljudmi", "Uspavanka Za Vagabunde", "Solze Na Oknih" and "Pismo Za Mary Brown" are still beautiful songs, in my opinion some of the best in Slovenian pop and its simply loss for the rest of audiences on national level that this music didn't get bigger exposure. Perhaps Sepe didn't have such magnificent instrument like Elda Viler or Ditka Haberl (or soulful Alenka Pinterič) but she was definitely in the very pantheon of most important artists in her homeland and her rare recordings are still worth checking out. 



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