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Written in fRoots issue 233, 2002

TÜKRÖS
Tükrös Tábor
FolkEurópa FECD 005 (2002)

MÉTA
Bétöltse Szívedet
FolkEurópa FECD 004 (2001)

In the latter part of the 20th century a few young musicians in the cities of Hungary turned their attention to the wealth of exciting folk music that, while dwindling, still existed in the villages. City dance-houses and summer music camps were organised, in which the dance element meant a much more participatory audience than would have been the case if they’d simply staged concerts. The numbers of young city players increased; they often went to the countryside to learn from older traditional players and singers, and their skills and understanding grew.
      Some, while usually continuing to pitch into dance-house style get-togethers and informal playing, built on the traditional forms and skills they’d learned to make new music and new fusions, while others have formed ensembles matching more or less closely the line-up of the old village or Gypsy bands. As interest has grown abroad, it’s often these young revival bands that have done the missionary work, at club gigs and folk camps sometimes as far away as North America and Australia.

      Just such are the bands Tükrös and Méta, who have both been around since the 1980s. Tükrös’s previous CD, FolkEurópa’s first release back in 2000, concentrated on the music of the upper Tisza region; this new one diversifies to include material they play at the camps they organise, learned from Transylvanian musicians and the Gypsy bands of Gömör and Abaújszina. It’s a mix of tunes and songs, three featuring the band’s singer Éva Korpás and, on four more, characterful guest vocals and ‘rhythmic shouts’ from male traditional singers László Papp, Lajkó Levente and Attila Oláh. The sextet has a line-up of two violins, one or two violas, cimbalom, double bass and singer, and it makes a rich, grainy sound, very much like a good village band, with strong bowing, the twin fiddles scampering and soaring with that spirited, chancy intonation and no café-syrup.

      Méta is a dance-house and teaching band, again with a village-band sort of line-up and approach but with a usually softer sound than Tükrös and just one fiddler, Beáta Salamon, who has a light, airy touch. She’s joined by viola, cimbalom, bass and occasional drum, cello or kobza, with the recent addition of Attila Gera giving also a choice of clarinet, bagpipe, tárogató, furulya and kaval. The material, a set of dance tunes and songs with the vocals shared between Beáta, the four men and guest singer Ferenc Németh, comes from several regions of Hungary plus a tune each from nearby Romania and Moldova.


© 2002 Andrew Cronshaw
 

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