Beyond Dreams

Beyond Dreams
Music & film

A musical performance by guitar virtuoso Elvis Šahbaz, enhanced with visuals by film experimentalist Davorin Marc.

His unobtrusive, gentle, playful playing evokes a sense of timelessness in which everything is aligned, everything is right, nothing is too much. Moreover, his music is full of hope, peace, love, desire, sparkles, warmth, dreams; it heals wounds, connects, awakens, inspires, shows paths – you just have to stroll along and submerge yourself in dreams and even beyond them. 

Elvis Šahbaz is true to himself. He follows his dreams, his path, he stubbornly sticks to his principles, he is more and more driven forward, goes deeper and deeper, into the depths of his soul. He is fearless. His courage is rewarded again and again – with the music he shares with us. This is his third album, and he has at least two more “in his head”, as he says, while constantly creating new songs.

This extraordinary self-taught composer has no formal musical education, and his music is not written in music notation. His compositions, perfected through thoughtful and sensitive playing, are flow from his heart and soul. Elvis feels and lives the music, he stands behind it, he is convinced of it – more so with every album.

The compositions of the first album (Parenzana, 2017) are a journey, a collection of diverse sound images, stories, feelings of everyday life in his beloved seaside town Izola; the compositions of the second album (Io, 2019) are more intimate, starting with an introduction and concluded with an epilogue, in a way similar to book writing.

The tracks on the new third album are all that and more. They are above and beyond dreams. It is precisely there, in the afterlife, that the last two tracks, which round off the album, entitled Beyond Dreams, also reach.

The order of the tracks is carefully thought out, following the same sequence as the life itself – from birth, growing up, adulthood and ageing, with a variety of experiences in between as we each strive to follow our dreams in our own way, and finally to the farewell, when we leave it all behind. And then – beyond.

This album is Elvis’ journey, it is his life, it is him – the mature him. We hear and experience him discovering, searching, disclosing himself, hoping, reflecting, finding; we slide deeper with him, we feel the brightness, the purity, the clarity, the softness; we enter the dream, we merge with it, we surrender … 

His music absorbs us, it has power, magnetic power…

Lučka Lešnik