Hungary - The Southwest

The village of Nagyszékely

 Finally we leave the Alps and arrive in Hungary.  I have only passed through this country on a couple of occasions visiting a friend in the village pictured above, the name of which I never managed to pronounce, so don't know the country at all well.  Hungary as a country at the crossroads of many cultures in the centre of Europe has a long and proud history and has retained its fiercely unique culture and language.  I consider myself quite a linguist, but find the Hungarian language impenetrable.  It's one of the few languages in Europe, which are not part of the Indo-European family.  Hungary lost much of its territory after World War I, so much of that culture can also be found in neighbouring regions.

As for the music Hungary has an exceptionally rich folk music tradition, which was popularised to a wider audience in the mid-19th century by classical composer Franz Liszt, who composed the Hungarian Rhapsodies for piano.  This was certainly my first brush with Hungarian music many years ago.  

So without further ado we begin our journey in Kaposvár in the west of the country south of Lake Balaton, where violinist Ferenc Sánta Jr. was born in 1945.  Classically trained he decided in 1969 to concentrate on Romani Gypsy tunes.  He is the maestro of the Hungarian National Gipsy Orchestra.  He has only produced a moderate amount of recorded material as Ferenc Sánta Jr. & his Gypsy Band.  Here's a Csárdás dance tune from his 1995 album Csárdás: Hungarian Gypsy Music. 

  Singer and textile artist Renáta Csőke is originally from Pécs.  I can't find out a lot about her, so I assume her textile art takes up most of her time, but she has a beautiful voice singing mostly traditional Hungarian songs.  Here she is solo and a Capello, a song called Av Aba Bochkor:

She is also a founding member of the folk ensemble Dutar alongside multi-instrumentalist Peter Kopeczky.  Here is a lively song from their 2008 album Idegen Vendég called Fölszállot a pava, which apparently means the peacock took off:

Every year just before the lent season the good people of Mohács celebrate their version of carnival, the Busójárás.  It's when the Šokci, a southern Slav ethnic group don masks and costumes to frighten away the winter or the Ottomans, depending on who's story you listen to.  The folk band Bogyiszló Orchestra is closely associated with this ritual.  This track features on the 2002 Rough Guide to Hungarian Music and is called Jumping Dances:

Finally folklorist and musician Ferenc Sebő was born in the town of Szekszárd in 1947.  He was instrumental in the 1970's folk revival in Hungary and was the leader of the influential Sebő Ensemble, which has produced many musicians who subsequently became national stars.  Here is another traditional dance form called the Verbunk, which apparently was danced by regiments of Hussars at army recruitment events in the 19th century.  This also features on the Rough Guide to Hungarian Music disc mentioned above:

We'll leave it here for the moment, I've got a lot to get through at our next stop in Budapest.  In the meantime you can follow my virtual trip on my tripline map.

Austria - Vienna

 We move onto the capital of Austria, Vienna or Wien. Unfortunately I can't find any pictures as my last visit was back in 1991.  The members of folk quintet Alma are from all over Austria, but got together in Vienna in 2013.  Their mission is to give traditional Alpine folk a contemporary twist finding their roots in jazz and classical music as well as traditional folk from Austria and beyond.  Their music is mostly instrumental with strings and accordion the main instruments.  In 2017 they won the German World Music Award.  Here is a lively tune from their 2017 album Oeo called Hep!

Violinist Angelika Hudler was classically trained, but her passion these days is the folk traditions of Europe.  She has her fingers in a number of different projects including Yeah! But Balkan... (playing Romanian, Serbian and Bulgarian tunes), Sprinkle Blizzard (playing French-style balfolk), Too Bett Violins (a violin duo with her Slovakian flat mate Petra Onderuf, which started during their enforced lockdown recently), Orkester Jovana Povića (another international Balkan ensemble with Serbian accordionist Jovan Pović), as well as playing Swedish and Austrian folk with a number of collaborators.  Another fun project she leads is the Folk Fiddle Ensemble Wien, where anybody regardless of experience can turn up and they play folk together.  If I lived in Vienna, I'd be joining them.  

Oddly, despite being a very busy and accomplished musician, she doesn't actually seem to have released any music on CD, or at least not that I can find, so you're just going to have to go to Vienna to hear her play.  Here's a tune with the Yeah! But Balkan... project called Maneaua Florăreselor:

Viennese Jazz keyboard player and composer Joe Zawinul (1932-2007) has played with some of the jazz greats such as Dinah Washington, Cannonball Adderley and Miles Davis.  While those experiences showed him to be one of the most accomplished jazz pianists it was later that he found his own voice after being prompted by Dizzy Gillespie to play his own style.  He went on to form the Weather Report and the Zawinul Syndicate becoming one of the pioneers of jazz fusion, blending jazz improvisation with rock, world music influences (before the latter even became a term), and electronica.  In 1993 he was commissioned to write an orchestral symphony, Stories of the Danube, which musically follows the river Danube from its source in Germany to the Black Sea.  If you have an hour, have a look at the BBC4 documentary dedicated to him:

 Here's a song which features on his 1996 album My People called Erdäpfee Blues (Potato Blues):

Gypsy music project DelaDap (also !DelaDap) was formed around Czech born producer Stani Vana in 2002 in Vienna.  They combine traditional Roma rhythms with Jazz, electronica and pop to create a danceable urban pop music.  Here's the live version of the piece Georgian Lesson, which features on their 2012 album I know What You Want:

Producer, DJ and band leader Ulf Lindemann aka Dunkelbunt was actually born in Hamburg, Germany in 1979, but has based himself in Vienna since 2001, where he is one of the pioneers of electro swing, a fusion of Balkan, Klezmer and Swing.  He has collaborated amongst many others with Romanian gypsy outfit Fanfare Ciocărlia, Boban Markovic, the above mentioned DelaDap, The Amsterdam Klezmer Band, Tori Amos, 17 Hippies and Al Jawala.  Here's a song called Cinnamon Girl, which features on his 2016 Best of Album:

Finally I can't leave Vienna without mentioning Johann 'Hans' Hölzel aka Falco (1957-1998).  He is arguably the most internationally recognised music export from Austria with hits like Rock Me Amedeus, Der Kommissar and Vienna Calling.  His music is described as New Wave and rock.  He sang both in Austrian German and English (often in the same song).  During his life he was haunted by drug abuse and a volatile personality and he tragically died prematurely in a traffic accident in Domenica just as he was planning a comeback tour.  Here is Vienna Calling, which featured on his 1985 album Falco 3:

That's it from Austria, next we'll be heading into Hungary, where we'll spend a bit more time.  In the meantime you can follow my virtual winding way around Europe and the world on my Tripline map.

Liechtenstein & Austria

 When I set out this blog, I said I'd stop in every country, so I better give Liechtenstein a mention (although I draw the line at Vatican City!).  I have on a number occasions accidentally visited Liechtenstein, usually when trying to avoid a traffic jam in one of the tunnels in Switzerland and suddenly realising that the number plates on the cars looked different.  On one occasion I ended up in a traffic jam in rush hour Vaduz instead, so had a bit of time to look at the place as well.

The majority of the population are either bankers and/or play in the international football team plus their respective partners.  There are a few alpine skiers as well, so it doesn't leave many people making music.  There is one guy called Al Walser who has become a bit of a pop star in Los Angeles and there is gothic metal band Erben der Schöpfung, and that is about it to my knowledge.  In time honoured fashion of rock bands, they have had numerous infights and split with one of the founders retaining the rights to the original band name, whilst the rest carried on under the name Elis, after the title their first single.  Here is said song:

So much for Liechtenstein and before you know it you have crossed another border and end up in Austria.  

Now my memories of Austria are altogether more positive than those of Switzerland: delicious cakes in Vienna, racy white wines in ancient cellars in the Wachau region around Krems and unctuous desert wines on the Lake Neusiedl in the east.  But for music?  Here is an abridged history of music in Austria:

• 18th-19th century: Vienna is the centre of the musical universe with classical composers from everywhere drawn to the city with it's most famous son Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at the centre.
• Intervening period until 1980's: Some yodelling
• 1986: Falco sings Amadeus
• 2014: Conchita Wurst, the lady with the beard, wins the Eurovison Song Contest

So in other words, Austria is not exactly famous for music in the modern era, not sure why this is.  We begin our journey in the west of the country in Hall in Tirol, where composer and jazz musician Werner Pirchner was born (1940-2001).  He seemed to have had a wicked sense of humour.  The following is a short extract from a film called Der Untergang des Alpenlandes (The fall of the Alpine country), for which he composed the music.  In the intro they bemoan the fact that traditional dance hasn't changed for hundreds of years and propose a new form of dance...

About 10 years ago, when we lived in Italy, we were joined on our land by a young volunteer from Klagenfurt in Austria called Steph.  She told us of her dreams of travelling the world and becoming a musician.  She had already represented Austria in the junior Eurovision Song Contest, a fact she was slightly embarrassed about.  Now 10 years and many travels later she has just released her first album under her artist name She Got Salty Bones called Ocean Shores.  Here is a short album preview.  You can buy it directly from her website if you feel like supporting a young artist.

Hubert Achleitner is so proud of his home town of Bad Goisern that he renamed himself Hubert von Goisern.  The singer/songwriter certainly has been around, from South Africa, Canada and the Philippines to Tanzania and Tibet.  He is friends with primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall and the Dalai Lama. All this has influenced his music style which he incorporates into the traditions of his native Austria.  His genre is often described as Neue Volksmusik (New Folk), but more often as Alpenrock (Alpine Rock), which probably better describes it.  From the mid-80's to the mid-90's he was accompanied by his band Die Alpinkatzen.  This track, Da Juchitzer, which can be found on his album Eswaramoi 1992-1998, features some wild yodelling over some rock rhythms:

The duo Attwenger were formed in 1990 in the city of Linz, consisting of drummer Markus Binder and button accordion player Hans-Peter Falkner.  They combine the traditional folk music of the Upper Austrian region with hip-hop, singing in their local dialect.  During the early days they literally took traditional Austrian songs and put a punk spin on it, but as they evolved over the years, they began writing their own material, mixing in electronic elements, rap and dub.  Here's a song from their 2011 album Flux called hintn umi (round the back):

Composer and electronic music pioneer Hubert Bognermayr (1948-1999) was born in Linz.  He was one of the founder of the Ars Electronica festival in 1979 and founding member of Austrian rock band Eela Craig and founder of the Blue Chip Orchestra.  He is even credited with influencing Mike Oldfield.  With the Blue Chip Orchestra he created a New Age electronic sound inspired by Native American music, which is sensitively interwoven into the music.  Here is the opening track to the 2000 re-issue album Enigmania (not sure if it is still available) called Ate Heve Lo!

I'll leave it at that for today and will give the capital Vienna a separate post.  In the meantime, as usual, you follow my virtual trip in my Tripline map.

Switzerland - The West & the Rest

Moving onto the French speaking part of Switzerland we cover a music style you may not be expecting from this part of the world: Reggae.  Junior Tshaka was born in Neuchâtel in 1978 and has been playing Reggae ever since winning the European Reggae Contest in 2000.  He sings in French and here is a song from his 2010 album Il Est Temps called Dis-moi qui:

Next stop is Geneva, where I visited a friend a few years ago.

Duo Hyperculte were formed in Geneva in 2014 and describe their style as minimalist transpop prekraut postdisco.  Playing drums and double bass with electronic sounds they are inspired by the likes of Kraftwerk.  Here is a track from their 2019 album Massif Occidental called Temps Mort:

Moving on to Lausanne we meet El Mizan, a band combining the sounds of the Maghreb with punk rock.  Algerian mandole player Anouar Kaddour Chérif and his Swiss band describe their work as "a North African Occidental dish served in Darija".  Here's a track from their only release to date, their 2019 album Nirani, called Hakmet Lakdar:

11-piece Afrobeat band Professor Wouassa were founded in 2003 in Lausanne with mostly Swiss musicians.  It's a long way from yodelling, but shows the metropolitan side of Switzerland.  Here's a track from their 2017 album Grow Yes Yes! called We Thit:

Moving on to the town of Monthey in the mountains of the Canton of Valais, where the Swiss/Malian duo Kala Jula are based consisting of Swiss multi-instrumatalist Vincent Zanetti (guitar, kora, djembe drums) and Malian griot Samba Diabaté on acoustic guitar.  Diabaté is from the western Malian town of Kita and belongs to the Mandinka people and therefore the music very much is inspired by Manding tradition, but with a modern twist, sometimes hinting at jazz.   For their 2017 album Mande Kulu they are joined on double bass by Hélène Labarrière and violonist Jackie Molard to form almost a chamber music ensemble.  Here is a piece from the album called Les Bouffons recorded live:

And just to finish off our virtual tour of Switzerland we stop off in Lugano in the Italian speaking Ticino region, where Switzerland's most successful music act comes from, the hard rock band Gotthard.  They've been going since 1992 and their last 11 albums all went to the top of the Swiss album charts.  In 2010 founding member and lead singer Steve Lee died in a motorcycle accident and was replaced by Nic Maeder.  Shortly after they released a single in memory of their departed singer called Remember It's Me:

Finally on our way east and out of Switzerland we go back to the German speaking Central Switzerland to the Muotathal for something more traditional again.  This is where balfolk trio Ambäck hail from consisting of Markus Flückiger (Schwyzerörgeli), Andreas Gabriel (fiddle) and Pirmin Huber (double bass).  They give a contemporary twist to the traditional dance tunes of their little valley.  Here is a tune from their latest EP Chreiselheuer, which came out earlier this year called Verändler:

This is it from our virtual trip around Switzerland.  Todays tour felt more like a world tour than a tour through this Alpine nation, but at least there was no yodelling in sight this time.  Next stop Liechtenstein (perhaps not...) and Austria.  As usual you can follow my virtual ramblings on my Tripline map.