Tepih brings together Samo Kutin, Gaudenz Badrutt, Tomaž Grom and Jonas Kocher—four musicians connected through their long-standing collaboration within the Šalter Ensemble, a fertile meeting ground for Swiss and Slovene experimental music. The quartet was born from an idea by producer Špela Trošt and first took shape in November 2023 for a concert at Defonija, the legendary Ljubljana series curated by Miha Zadnikar.
On May 22 2024, the group gathered at Samo’s farm in Lesno Brdo, a small village west of Ljubljana, for a recording session. The chosen location was a dusty, half-open barn strewn with old hay—a setting that lent the music a raw, textural character. The session unfolded over the course of an afternoon, shifting between sunshine and rain, and punctuated by pauses for local cheese, schnapps, and cigarettes. As time passed, the music settled into a quieter, more introspective—and at times improbable—mode, perharps echoing Interstices / Interference, a composition the musicians had recently performed (and would again) with the Šalter Ensemble.
What emerged and gave shape to the album Šablona is a music of layered coexistence: sonic found objects, broken melodies, irregular pulses, and shimmering electronic textures. These disparate elements unfold in parallel, not seeking unison but responding to one another in a fluid, organic exchange.
Jonas Kocher, June 2025