Boštjan Gombač

Union Hall is the only surviving building of the former Götz brewery, which in the mid-19th century was the leading brewery in Maribor and was considered the most modern brewery in Slovenian Styria. Its central building, Götz Hall – today’s Union Hall – was built in 1911 and is one of the last important examples of neo-baroque architecture. At the time it was the largest venue in Maribor, and for its significance and authenticity it is protected as a cultural and historical monument.

Its acoustics reveal themselves most beautifully when the hall is empty and filled by the sound of a single instrument. The precise, balanced reverberation plays along with the performer and invites him to use the full range of the instrument – and gives the listener an authentic experience of the space and of a performance that was only possible without an audience.

Boštjan Gombač is a multi-instrumentalist, performer, composer and actor. Since childhood he has been inspired above all by the sounds and stories that different instruments carry within them, and his childlike curiosity and constant crossing of genre boundaries keep opening new horizons of musical expression.

His approach to making and performing music is sincere and spontaneous. A single performance often embraces many moods, from deep and abstract musical journeys to unpredictable, almost mischievous ideas that give the music its spark and the performer’s own unmistakable stamp.

Spaces is a collection of in-situ sound and music recordings guided by a simple premise – one performer, one instrument, one space – capturing the synergy between the musician, the space and the music that emerges in acoustically compelling places. Each session unfolds live over a day or two, with no audience and no studio overdubs. By relying on location field recorders and a minimal microphone setup, we bring studio-grade capture into remote, off-grid locations – leaving the sound honest, unprocessed and defined by the space itself.