Across CD order

On »ACROSS«

The fine arts and paintings brought us together toward the end of the summer of 2006. For the closing ceremony of the Bleiburg Lions Club Artist Week the organizers wanted new music performed in conjunction with the newly created artwork, and that was how our musical paths crossed for the first time.

Our first joint CD “ACROSS” is a reflection of all the compositions and improvisations that have come out of our concerts – though few in number they were never lacking in excitement and the pure joy of making music. This CD is for all those who want to share this joy. We hope you like it.

Arthur Ottowitz / Janez Gregorič

Guitar and harmonica... heard that before... blues... folk...
True, and to some extent that’s what you’ll find on this CD too. The harmonica isn’t called a blues harp for nothing...

But that’s not all. You’ll also encounter a wide range of sounds, associations, moods. That this CD was named after the track “Across” is no coincidence, and not just because it is one of the most beautiful numbers on the CD – “Across” can also be seen as a programmatic title.

Crossover music has, after all, become quite fashionable, even if sales and the latest trends often seem to overshadow the “real,” musical content.

With “Across” I don’t have this impression; here you have two musicians playing what they enjoy playing – let someone else pigeonhole them. Thus what the listener gets are traces of blues or folk, a pinch of “classical,” and faint echoes of Latin American sounds… You have such different tracks as “Bogdan’s Bottle” and “Delight” back to back or traditional folk songs from our region, music that intuitively expressed our state of mind long before “folk” came along.

What all these tracks have in common is that they need time to sink in. The transmission of the musical-emotional waves sent out by the musicians can only be completed if a listener’s receptors are open. That is why I recommend sending out your inner antennae, catching the vibes, and just enjoying the beautiful music for a while.

Karlheinz Miklin jazz musician, composer, jazz instructor

across

Arthur Ottowitz, Blues Harp
Janez Gregorič, Guitar

  • Across
  • Paris Please [MP3]
  • Los.In.On
  • Ume-Tja [MP3]
  • Nice Advice
  • Blisk Arthur
  • Bogdan's Bottle
  • Delight
  • Fibo.06
  • Afreeca






One can be true to oneself and at the same time, by opening up to the other, one becomes something completely different and refreshingly new: the masterfully employed and shrewdly controlled ecstasy of the guitar fuses with the subtle, sensuous raw power of the harmonica; the surprising and convincing result is an uplifting whole that buoys you up all day long.

Fabjan Hafner Lyriker lyricist, translator, literary theorist

The guitar and harmonica conjure up romantic images of the Wild West and lonesome cowboys. Janez Gregorič and Arthur Ottowitz love the open prairie, but their musical worlds extend far past the rocky and bluesy mountains, give us solitary tunes played in cheerful camaraderie, lead “across the horizon,” invite us to listen attentively or to just kick back and chill.
“Across” is somehow different. In a nice way.

Erwin Hirtenfelder cultural journalist

To me music means feelin’ – it prances, captivates, stomps, protests, caresses. I feel it!!

Dieter Themel singer, listener, and reader


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