SATORI, a six-piece neo-soul band from Zagorje ob Savi, Slovenia, release their captivating new single “Walking” today, the lead track from their debut album, The Seat of the Soul, out now on Spotify and all major platforms. For North American listeners discovering them for the first time, SATORI arrive as something genuinely rare: a band steeped in soul, blues, jazz, and pop who have built a sound that feels both warmly familiar and entirely fresh, anchored by the extraordinary voice of vocalist Ursula Luthar and the rich keyboard and compositional vision of multi-instrumentalist and bandleader Jure Tori.
“Walking” is an irresistible introduction. Built around a groove that pulses with the rhythmic energy of city life, the song turns the sidewalk into a dance floor and the urban landscape into a full orchestral score: “Streets keep dancing all around / In the rhythm of a concrete sound / Cars invite them to a waltz / Fast and faster, what it costs? / Power lines provide the staff / Beat’s four-four, well, that’s enough.” It is the kind of song that moves your body before your mind catches up, and Luthar delivers it with a cool, soulful authority that will draw immediate comparisons to the finest voices in contemporary neo-soul.
The album behind it is a work of remarkable depth and ambition. ‘The Seat of the Soul’ was produced by Jamirko at Beyond Stereo Studio in Ljubljana and features ten tracks that range from the lush romantic imagery of “Find Me a Rhyme” to the mythic grandeur of “Prometheus Fire,” the quietly devastating portrait of “She,” and the tender permission of the closing track “Rest Now”: “Too long you’ve been plowing on, looking for something / The night’ll guide you / Make you believe you were always enough.” The ensemble includes Primož Grašič on guitar, Wolfram Derschmidt on double bass, Tijan Grašič on drums, and trumpet contributions from Gerhard Ornig and Jan Adamek across the album’s ten tracks, with cover illustration by painter Darko Slavec and released on the Slovenian label Klopotec.
Tori’s journey to this record is one of the more compelling creative origin stories in recent European music. Locked in his basement with his keyboards, he discovered the sounds of the Wurlitzer, Rhodes, and Hammond organ and recognised in them the palette he had always been searching for. He assembled musicians who could inhabit those sounds alongside him. There is, as he has noted himself, almost no music of this kind being made in Slovenia. SATORI are filling that space with something that belongs on the world stage, and The Seat of the Soul is their opening argument.
Hi, Juri! Good to meet you! Care to introduce yourself to the readers for those not familiar with your music?
I am a simple person who enjoys good melodic music and the sounds of different instruments. That’s why I create my own music in different styles with different instruments from the accordion to the piano, Hammond organ. I play my feelings and that’s how melodies are created, for which you can imagine stories using the song titles. I perform these songs in various bands of mine all over the world. From the acoustic Tori Trio, the folk rock band Orlek, Tori Tango, to a duet with the poet Aleš Štegro. Now I hope to continue this with the new band Satori.
How did the six of you first come together as a band?
This story is long. Namely, in life, what you imagine never happens. I had in mind musicians with whom I had played in various bands of mine before. I wanted to make a dream team. Well, later the dream team was created, but with completely different musicians than I had originally imagined. The time of the corona virus came and turned things upside down. Since everyone was recording at home, I invited completely different musicians to participate, with whom we could collaborate at that time. We had to find a producer who would take care of the beat, studio musicians who had their own music studio at home, etc. That’s how musicians I didn’t know personally ended up in the band.
There is not much neo-soul music in Slovenia. What made you want to create this style of music?
To be honest, I didn’t know what genre we recorded. I was impressed by the sound of the Wurlitzer, Rhodes piano and Hammond organ. When I bought a computer program for drums, I felt that something good would come out. Beautiful melodies with good Rhodes sounds and a beat were sought by a top vocalist, guitarist and trumpeter. In the end, it turned out to be neo soul.
What was the most fun song to record on ‘The Seat of the Soul’ and why?
Perhaps the song Walking, for which the producer set a new beat and changed the song considerably from my original idea.
If SATORI could perform anywhere in North America tomorrow, where would you love to play first?
I come from the small country of Slovenia in the middle of Europe, so I don’t know of any venues in North America that are suitable for our genre of music. It would definitely be good to have the first concerts in less important clubs or halls, so that we can connect with the audience and feel each other out. But after a few concerts, it’s all more relaxed and refined.
TOUR DATES
July 3 — Trbovlje, Slovenia
July 17 — Ptuj, Slovenia
July 23 — Izola, Slovenia