Folk dances. Be a part of it!

I've had a few people ask me where they can learn more about the traditional music of the Balkan region, so I decided to dedicate one post to this. Coincidentally, this week the University of Eötvös Loránd in Budapest prepared an event called Bölcsész Napok. Now, what's special about this is that there were also many performances there, which included traditional dances. As far as I know, there was salsa on Tuesday, as well as belly dance, and such. There was also a performance by Bohemian Betyars, a folk rock band from Budapest. Unfortunately, this time I didn't manage to catch them with my camera, but I'm looking forward to reviewing one of their shows soon.

© Viktória Jávorszky

Anyway, what I want to focus on here is the Macedonian group, which I'm also a member of. We performed twice on Thursday, actually. We give many thanks to Viktória, also a student of Macedonian language, who was kind enough to make some breathtaking photos of the event.
We would especially like to thank Agatics Krunoszláv (the link is to his homepage), who joined the Macedonian day, while playing on his accordion to our songs. Without him, our performance wouldn't have been even half as good. Thank you, Kićo! Check out the group's page as well: Zora Zenekar.

© Viktória Jávorszky

Now, what the University offers are some outstanding teachers, who are not afraid to bring new ideas into the mixes of classes. With the help of the teacher of Macedonian, Panda Stojanovska, last October we founded a dancing group, which focuses on Macedonian dances. Starting again from September, anyone can join. There will also be travels included, while participating in international folk dancing meetings and festivals. (In case you want to join, let me know, and I'll give you the contact address).

There was also a singing performance done by other students of Slavic languages, who also performed Makedonsko devojče, but with a few minor changes in the lyrics. The absolute delight was the Russian teacher, who was not only leading the group with his violin, but also stole the show with his amazing baritone.

Now, let's go back to the dancing places in Budapest. There are many. Some of them require membership, some entrance fee, and some are basically open to everyone. Of course, the 'cheaper' the participation is, the more amateur dancers there will be. So, the suggestion is to start with the open groups first, later on moving onto the more closed, experienced ones. I will only point out one of those that I've tried, but it's usually quite easy to find others. Most of the people who dance in these know at least a few more, and will be more than happy to help you out. Even in English.

Falkafolk Együttes (photo taken from their Facebook page)

My favourite one is Falkafolk Együttes and Balkan Táncház ('táncház' is a Hungarian word for these dance places. Literally, it means 'house of dances'). I've only been a few times, due to my tight schedule, but I absolutely loved it. They usually meet in Fővárosi Művelődési Ház (address is Fehérvári út 47, XI. district). You can get there easily by taking the tram 47.

The meetings are on Fridays, starting at 7 pm. The dances usually last until around 11 pm. The entrance fee is 700 Ft, but for this amount of dances it's completely worth it.

The dances include Greek, South Slavic dances (Serbian, Croatian, etc.), Macedonian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Albanian, and Turkish.

As for the other places, there's still a huge amount of places that are yet to be explored. I can offer these two links: Tanchaz.hu and Folkradio.hu,  where you can search for places by weekdays (on the second one: at the end of the list there's a link named 'következő hét - it means next week). The addresses and the additional info can also be found there. So, if you try any of them and come to like it, let us know here. :)

© Viktória Jávorszky

Beltine Fest Craze

Niburta: Balázs and Lili

Bands: Oganj (CRO), Cruadalach (CZ), Niburta (HU),
Avven (SLO), Ignotus Enthropya (HU)

Venue: Crazy Mama Music Pub, Gubácsi út 97, 1097 Budapest

Time: April 28, 2012 - 7.30 pm

Entrance fee: 900 HUF

Finally, Beltine fest has returned to Budapest! Last Saturday I got the chance to see some of my favourite folk metal bands in this part of Europe. Apart from Niburta, who I absolutely love seeing live, Crazy Mama Pub hosted Oganj from Croatia, Cruadalach from Czech Republic, Avven from Slovenia (which was such a nice surprise for me), and the Hungarian Ignotus Enthropya.

The concert started at 7.30 pm, as planned, with Oganj. Although they haven't been around that long, they already have a nice fan base in Croatia and around, due to their previous involvement with Stribog, one of the leading folk (black) metal bands in Croatia. Even though I had to miss most of their performance, I can say that I'm quite familiar with what the members are capable of. For that reason I'm more than sure that their show was a perfect warm-up for the following bands. So, be sure to listen to their song Zima here.

Setlist: Kada Padne Dan; Zima; Cold, White Sun; Igre; The Wheel of Time.

Cruadalach: Jan (vocals) and Hana (violin)

Soon after, Cruadalach came onto the stage, making the crowd ferociously bang their heads. The singer Jan's enthusiasm and energy especially was what kept everybody on their feet all the time. He kept diving into the crowd pit, initiating mosh pit in every song. The band was quite surprised that the crowd knew the lyrics to the songs, even though they were mostly in Czech.

Niburta: István (kobza, vocals)

The two girls in the band, Petra and Hana, proved to be a delight by bringing various folk melodies into the mix with their flutes and violin. It was obvious that not only the band members worked well together, but also that they had good connections with the other band when the singer of Oganj, Ana, joined them on stage to fullfil their music with her incredible voice. Too bad that the bend kind of kept her in the background, though.

Setlist: Rage Starts Here, Hear Our Voices!, Cruadalach, Living With Pride, Vrásčitá, Pramen Epony, Nezlomní, Morrigan, Code Satyros, Zlatovláska, Occident Sun. 




I've already written about Niburta a lot, but it won't stop me from praising them again. It seems that with every show their performance becomes stronger and more confident, with a few new elements introduced each time. In that light, I have to point out that this time they added a few more acoustic sections, with Milán, the drummer, playing on a cajon between the beautiful tunes of the flute, and the amazing female vocals. The singer Balázs once again stepped in to give the drums a try.

A special treat was introduced for the fans - Horace's poem Lydia, which the band performed in an acoustic fashion as well. It was quite a refreshment in the band's usual repertoire. 

Setlist: Bogorovice (intro), Shto Kaszmete, Nap és Hold, Mashala, Forebear's Dance, Dance of Satyrs (Daemonia Nymphe cover), Lydia (Horatius), Keselyű, Awakening, Forgotten Path, Rege, Fúvom az énekem.

Avven

Being a newly born fan of Avven, I didn't quite have a chance to experience their music much before the gig itself. To my complete astonishment, the band outdid their studio work this Saturday. They played with enormous energy, changing between harsher parts to slower ones with many folk elements introduced by the keyboards and flutes.

 
Avven has existed since 2003, until this point creating their own original music. They combine themes from fantasy to nature and mythology, while at the same time putting the main focus on the majestic male vocals.


Last year they finally released their second album, Kastalija, which made their popularity in Slovenia even greater. The Beltine tour, just like with the other bands who were participating, they got the perfect opportunity to show what they can do outside of their home countries. To my knowledge, they definitely made a difference by participating. In return, many fans went home from the concert happy about that new band they discovered.

Setlist: Intro, Spain, Ar Srf, Avven, Tarak, Panta Rhei, Tornach, Irish, Ibo, Vvile, Kanaan, Hej ti!, 5, Zmaji.


The last band on the stage was Ignotus Enthropya. They are also a younger band, featuring Bálint Kemény of Niburta on keyboards. Once again, we witnessed a short setlist, but it was completed with two quite interesting covers - one by Wintersun, the other one by Ensiferum.

Ignotus Enthropya: Christian (guitar)

Even though their role was kind of the closing 'ceremony' of the fest, many people stayed to support them by just having fun and enjoying the music. It could be seen that the band already has a fan base, mostly from Budapest, but nevertheless it's growing stronger.
In the past months they've been working on the material for releasing the debut EP. Hopefully in the future we will see more of them!




Setlist: Solid Silver, Beyond the Dark Sun (Wintersun cover), Extinction, Despair, Ignotus Enthropya, Writer's Words, Digital Deception, Iron (Ensiferum cover), Solid Silver.

Check out the concert gallery.