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Greetings to the listeners.This is the Index Cultural Robot podcast by Arutlug.I am Noémi Sümegi, and we can welcome two guests here in the studio, both members of the Söndörgő band, Áron Eredics.Hello, Áron.Hello.And Salamond Eredics.Hi.Hi.
We invited you to the studio because a big thing happened to you, which is rare in the life of Hungarian music, that in September you led the European world music list.
And I looked at this list, and it's very interesting, because in the name of European, it means European, but here African and all kinds of Canadian musicians are also involved.
So how is it that a European jury puts together this list of all world music productions?
Yes, basically this list is not for European, because it only lists European performers, but the members of the European Broadcasting Union vote for the best world music albums every month.This can be from any part of the world.
can be included in this album.
This is a big deal because, by the way, here in Hungary, if I remember correctly, Bartók Radio, Ebu or Danko, maybe, if I remember correctly, they are the ones who have the right to vote, and the music editors are the ones who rank it every month.
So it's absolutely such a professional list, and it's quite honorable, yes, that they ranked us first.
So this means that the radio listenership, the way a band or a song is played there greatly influences who and where on this list.
Yes, I think I'm not so aware of how it works.I know one piece of information for sure, that about 50 radio editors vote every month.That's what the little information you can get there says, but it's absolutely secret.
So we don't really know who those people are who vote, but I know that Europe is the majority.
This is interesting because, as you said, it is very respectable, because here the competition can be very large, you have to compete with world-class and working world music bands all over the world, and I listened to it and it is very interesting what kind of music those that are in the top 10 are now,
You play southern Slavic music, right?Serbian, Croatian, so you can sum up southern Slavic music.And, for example, there is a Canadian band on this list, which also plays Balkan, klezmer, a bit of gypsy, I don't know, beat.
So what comes up on this list, what do you think is going on?Or is there such a trend that they like to listen to them? Or is there a dramatic protagonist who is able to bring his own style to the top?There are always trends.
I hope that when we see something like this, the quality of the work is definitely the deciding factor here.And it's very similar, so really, since we've known this,
This list, because, by the way, it's not the first time we've come across it, but 10 years ago, it was interesting, this news that it appeared, because it happened to us there as well, that it was written that 10 years ago, or 10 years ago it wasn't like this, and even then, well, we were the first.
So this is the second time, and the way we've followed it, it's always very similar.So, a lot of things.
A lot of African music, for example.
Yes, but what exactly is in the minds of those who vote at this time?I hope that they really like the music at this time, and then this is the main point.
Yes, it's interesting that in August it got on the list, it started at the 10th place, and we were a bit like, yes, we didn't do this album like that, it wasn't the goal that something would happen here at the World Music Charts,
but we were like, yeah, this is a bit out of this world music, so to speak, this thing is falling off the shelf, and I think so, but how nice they are to put us in 10th place like this.
Then it's interesting that now in September it's in first place, which is probably what Sali is saying here, it proves that
that as more and more went, I think they just edited these into the shows, and then they probably felt that there was still some traditional basis for what we were doing.
Because that's probably the deciding factor, that I always have to be based on some kind of traditional music.
Yes, so that it has a traditional basis, but at the same time it has something extra, something that makes it special, makes it contemporary, somehow connects it to our current era.
If I say it right now, but I'll tell you about it later, here was the jazz that you brought into this new album, so this is the title of the album,
Jazz or jazz, I don't know, because I saw it written jazz with a slash, so it's jazz or jazz, so maybe jazz comes in here, it's already in the title, or maybe I read that jazz means gypsy day or dawn, I don't know if there was something like that, how did this title come out?
First of all, it's very good, because it's a novelty for us too, if that's the case, then it's a plus addition to the title.
We chose to write it in Hungarian, because it's not jazz, but on the album there is one of the greatest saxophonists of today's jazz world, Chris Potter.
and we are not jazz musicians, but as you have already mentioned, we come from a Hungarian but minority music tradition, and this collaboration obviously takes things to the next level.
And with the title, we tried to indicate that yes, it is a kind of jazz and not,
And, by the way, it came from Ferus Mustafa, with whom we are also not among us, unfortunately he left a year ago, but we had a very close cooperation with him, more than ten years ago we made a record with him,
And one of our tours brought us his new album, which was released in Macedonia, and there, in the Balkans, jazz is often written with this letter J, jazz.
And it stuck with us, because on the one hand, we really liked that it was not written for jazz, but for jazz,
And when this album was made, we had a long thought about what the title should be, what the title should be, but then we found this, this is the best way to express it, that it is, and it is not, and probably, by the way, they feel it, because a lot of such, not just this list, but a lot of such jazz experts also reviewed the album, as it is written for them,
The critics wonder if this is a jazz record or not, and in the end, it turns out that yes, it is.Really?Then maybe you didn't even get on the right list with world music.
We call it world music, but basically it tries to sum up the world of folk music. in the world, and we have seen several ways, even in Hungary, how traditional folk music can be made available today.
Do you think we should always think a little bit about how we can reach today's people, today's young people?You have been standing behind me for quite a few years, and you can see and play this music, what path you have taken.
how the receptionist community has changed.
Well, without really thinking about it, this happens to us, because it's like the music is constantly being renewed, which, by the way, well, yes, from a traditional music, so to speak, we grew up in such music, because, of course, many people know the band Újcsics, there is our father, Bőgős, our uncle also plays there.
So, we have been playing this music world since our childhood.We listened to this music at home, at the band rehearsals.We practically grew up on it.
Actually, it was natural, right at the beginning, that this music should only be played if it is constantly being renewed.So even if I think of a song, we already got used to it, that if you play a Serbian ball, let's say a dance,
that the song should be played in a way that it is always a bit different.So this is the basis of the whole thing, that it can be alive.
Well, then later it evolved to the point that in this musical language that you grew up in, you start to interpret your own things as well.But it's still the same language.
And then somehow we felt as children that we would like to say something very similar in this language than what we felt in many other genres.We still feel that.
But we have such an interesting language for it, we have learned it, and we can communicate it best.But so it's always a little different, as the years go by, something always gets in the way.
But I don't think there is such a conscious effort that it has to be renewed in every way, but it just happens naturally.
You mentioned that the music should remain alive.
You have experienced this as well, and this is what Hungarian folk musicians say, that the music has remained more alive in the surrounding countries, among the young people's entertainment habits, in the playlists of the radios, this folk music has remained much more alive than with us.
So, there they go to the popular music, and we go to such concerts.
Yes, this is relative, because of course it exists in the Balkans, so to speak, it is still a living tradition in everything.So, they use pop music in everything.
these folk music elements in a natural way, and as... After all, it's almost like what Sali said earlier, that things are also interpreted the way they are, let's say, in American culture, let's say, jazz, or other genres that develop from it.
Well, here we have a little bit of a scientific of this whole thing, which on the one hand can be interpreted as a result of a bit of a museum atmosphere, or, to put it in a modern way, as a result of a museum vibe.
But in fact, I think that this allowed for a much older class to remain.I'm thinking of those great predecessors who started these collections very early.
At the beginning of the 20th century, at the end of the 19th century, Bartók, Vikár, Kodály, and so on, these names could be listed, thanks to whom these prints remained.
And of course, that's why there's a little bit of this in us, too, by the way, it works to this day, that something has to be compensated for. So if it's an original folk song, then it has to be like that.
At the same time, it's there because we know that we were able to listen to it, we were able to listen to it from specific recordings, what this music was like when it was recorded in its original environment.
Now, this is not necessarily the case in the places where you live now.So there is such a duality that Yes, it's alive.
In the Balkans, young people feel much more naturally that they know the dance, they know the music, they know the motifs, in this case, the folk songs, the lyrics.Here, maybe it's not so much like that.
Let's just say that a narrow class is the one who, now, compared to that, I say it's a narrow class, However, there is an impression that it is much more original and ancient.So which is better?This question cannot be decided.
One thing is certain, that we who deal with it, we are very happy that it was possible to return to the original material, and that it was possible to inherit this language from the original materials.
Let's say that maybe this is how it becomes alive with us, with this Rival movement, which began to be re-learned in the 1970s.Yes, re-learning, yes.
You also mentioned Hungarian folk music.Now, what is the relationship between you and Hungarian folk music?
This Serbian-Croatian-Polish-Lithuanian folk music and Hungarian folk music obviously lived next to each other and played the different nationalities together. or their own songs, that they fit together.
Although there is a very striking difference between the two, as you also write somewhere that Hungarian folk music is the backbone.The tambura and the flutes give a very characteristic sound to this southern folk music.
And on this European world music list, Lajko Félix, who was previously on the list, Sebastián Márta, there is a very big tradition that Hungarian folk musicians can be successful in the Western world, and you liked it.
Or I could mention Monica Lakatos, who is a Vomax award winner.So we have very strong castles there.But you are in a special situation that you play a national music as a Hungarian band.How does this work?
This is an interesting layer of this music, because in Hungary there is a much older version of it.There is a Hungarian contemporary Islamic music.
This is a bit similar to the Hungarian folk music of Transylvania, where you can find the oldest style layers.And it is also the case that in Hungary, what we could learn, or the Vujicic collected around Pomás,
It surprises even the elderly living in Serbia, that our grandparents knew such things.So this is a special layer of this music.And then I don't even know where we started.
So, as a Hungarian band, you represented a nationalistic world.
Yes, but one that is closely related here, here too.
At the same time, it must be noted here at this question that there is such a part of the thing that we do not belong here or there, and this is actually the
The band will be 30 years old next year, and we can say that this is not an easy existence we are in, because we really play a minority music in Hungary.Of course, Serbian and Croatian are among the family roots.
but the Serbs obviously say that these are Hungarian boys, the Hungarians say that these are Serbian boys, and so it's a pretty difficult situation.
Of course, I say this difficulty in a timely manner, because obviously, I think it is the same part of Hungarian culture as the Hungarian people, so it has always been in a very mutual effect with each other.
And it's a very interesting thing that those walls, let's say, where we come from, Pomaz and its surroundings, Szentendre, there, 40-50 years ago, we are still talking about living traditions.
And here, this kind of coexistence, it worked just like that, that everyone knew the other's On the one hand, the music, the traditions, the dances together.The churches are next to each other, the Orthodox.
So this is somewhere, this music was able to stay in a more ancient form, because this closure actually made it so preserved that we kept our own tradition, but in the meantime,
And of course, I'm talking about family ties, but at the same time, it's an interesting thing that somehow, yes, we... it happened, but it wasn't a conscious thing.
So, on the one hand, such a great-grandfather, and their great-grandfather, where the language remained, so we don't speak Serbian anymore, for example.
And then somehow the generation of our parents, who were before us, found their way back, by the way, to classical music, so they didn't start on the path of folk music.You also graduated from the Academy of Music, didn't you?Yes, yes.
So it started in a similar way for us, just like our fathers,
they learned it with classical music, and then it just happened that in the village, there was a dance group, a band that could play these songs, and then they learned it.
Obviously, we already got this musical language in a more traditional way, because, as Sali said, we grew up with it. But in our country, musical studies started with classical music education, and not immediately with folk music.
Of course, this became the background.Do you play in the Balkans, by the way?
So there, as you said very interestingly, how it differs and what your music is like, but still there, Is it possible to find a connection with the audience?
We played very little on our previous stages.Didn't they dare to go to the venue?
Or is that how it works?Maybe this is also in it, what Áron was talking about, that we are Hungarians there.
Here it may be that we are really Serbs, I don't know.But yes, so these are such two-sided circles, the whole band, it's all about it.
I would add that if we look at the track running here, I'm spinning fast now, maybe we played the least in the Serbian-Croatian areas, but when we played, those were special occasions, because the first breakthrough, so to speak, was such a competition victory, that is, a drum competition,
It was a success in Novi Sad, which was also a breakthrough success among Hungarian tambourists and musicians involved in this.This gave us a huge momentum in the country of music, where there were a lot of very good musicians.
We achieved such a success there, it gave the band a lot of momentum.
And the second experience, which I can tell you a little bit, so we remember it quite well, was our first concert in Belgrade, where, by the way, that's exactly what you asked, how the audience reacts.
We understood there, because I said that we don't speak Serbian, but there are a couple of folk songs that we keep on the repertoire and we sing them with love.Obviously, we know what it means. but not singing like that.
We really record the whole thing musically, that we sing the same way as we play on the instrument.And to experience when the audience understands the text and sings with the person, because they know, that was a pretty good experience.
By the way, in Hungary you can also experience that this world is, let's say, the dance, so the audience present in dance culture, let's say in dance houses, so that's the layer.
But maybe even a wider layer, so I think this Délszláv music really resonates with the Hungarian folk songs, or how should I say, so the Kusturica films, Bobán Márkovics, so they really like these, these are very popular things.
So for some reason, this music world, I think people in Hungary like it very much.
Yes, we experience this too, of course, and then we mess up people when they come to a Söndörgő concert, because it's really just a part of what we do.
And actually now, maybe now we can say that if someone comes to a Söndörgő concert, they really come for the whole picture that we If I enlarge it by 10 minutes, we can have a Balkan party band, because there is such a part.
But we always build these concert shows in such a way that it is a process, and it has a lot of parts. For this process, we use elements that, for example, a Kusturica could fit in the film.
But yes, here we can go back to the fact that it is difficult to say what we are doing, I sometimes think that we are not working on the tradition of the people, but rather on the content of it.
There is this famous quote by Bartók, that the pure source is only from the pure source.Well, that's where the boys who have changed to shit come from, when they drink clean water and change to shit.So, if someone
For so many years, and he gets this material very clearly, well, it will change.And actually, something like this happened to us, and we are constantly looking for this experience, even at a concert.
And this is related to the musical language, but that's not the point.So, in fact, this is very clear, of course, but it could be a different language as well.But we know this through this.
And then, in fact, I think this is what appears in our musical world.
Is it possible, we have a new experience, you have a concert on the 15th of November in the Eiffel Museum, this will be Jazz's concert, but will you play something else, or how will this concert take place?
Earlier, Sali said it very nicely, that a concert is basically being built up.Obviously, the main focus of this concert is this new material.
And this is interesting for our record, because here, maybe this is our first record that wasn't born that way, that before the songs that come on the record, we've been playing them for a while.
They were transformed a bit during the concerts, and we recorded them that way.I think this is the first material that was born in the studio. I say this because we really met Chris Potter there for the first time musically.
Of course, there was already a meeting, but we played music together in the studio for the first time.
Will he be there at the concert?
He won't be there at this concert.I would like to mention this as a peculiarity, that he won't be there, because it is also an interesting thing that the music that is on this album how they sound under our hands.
This is also a very interesting thing, because obviously here, too, I just want to go back to what Sali said earlier, that this music, how we view it, what it is, and why it is so difficult to define it.
But somewhere in it is that we really look at it as a whole, not as a tradition or a tradition of worship, but as music.And although we are not jazz musicians, there is still a lot of improvisation in this.
And now, when Chris Potter is not here, what are we doing?So if someone comes to this concert, they can hear what we started with this material.I think it's interesting.
Well, it will be interesting to listen to this live.I would like to ask you one more thing.Is it possible that you will be able to celebrate this success with something?
Because I heard a rumor that it is possible that you will be nominated for the Grammy Award.
This is true, yes, this news, yes, yes, yes.Well, this is a spread that is quite shocking for us.Has this spread already happened?It has happened.
Let's look for the words here, because there is a huge respect for the expansion itself.
This is not a designation yet, you have to imagine that the first round of voting will take place in October, with which the candidates are placed in different categories.
This album is being released in two categories at the Grammy Awards in 2025, and I don't know how to say it, it's such a strange feeling that it exists.
Well, then we wish you all the best, if I understand correctly, to get into the next round, and that you will be able to continue successfully there, and we wish you all the best for the concert, and thank you very much for being here.
Thank you, we thank you too.And we say goodbye to the listeners.
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