Iztok Koren - Praznina / Emptiness

Emptiness is the second solo record by multi-instrumentalist Iztok Koren, a member of the bands Širom, Škm banda and Hexenbrutal.

A result of an outpouring of pent-up creative energy, the album came about after a last-minute force majeure cancellation of a Širom trip to Sarajevo, where the band was to make music for the theatre show Bordel Eden by director Mirjana Medojević. The musician decided to channel his blocked creative flow into new solo material and ended up recording Emptiness in a single day, 7 May 2022, at a secluded hut in the hills of the Zasavje region. The music from Emptiness was eventually used in Bordel Eden.

In addition to the mentioned venting, Iztok’s explorations on the album address the issue of oversaturation, personal moral dilemmas, internal conflicts and the search for a way out of them, overload problems and the urge to introduce changes that cannot happen unless space is secured first – i.e. unless harmful elements are removed and a state of emptiness is created. Emptiness is a necessary condition to stop the damage, to reconnect with oneself, to be cleansed and make a sober ethical assessment of one's actions, to take responsibility for one's actions, to find out who and what you really belong to and how to steer your life in the right direction.

The record is being sent out into the world with the intention of having the music created in that period live an independent second life and become detached from the author’s personal circumstances at the time. Art should be part of the commons.

All the tracks on the record were performed by Iztok Koren without overdubs, using a banjo, a three-string banjo, a guembri, electric guitar, a modular synthesizer, effects pedals, contact microphones, percussion, a steel drum and a balafon.