*. Kolinda .*

Album: Szerelem 1977-1997 (1997)(Compilation)
Genre: Prog Folk (Hungarian Folk/Contemporary Folk)  /  Hungary

Regarded as the renovator of Hungarian music in the seventies and eighties, Kolinda draws its name from a style of songs sung in procession, at Christmas time, by the children in search of offerings in the villages. It is at the Institute of Popular Studies of Budapest that the members of Kolinda discovered the work done on the country music at the beginning of the twentieth century by the composers Bartok and Kodaly. If those never sought to play this agrarian music, Kolinda has on the other hand brought it downtown and worked over again to revivify it. The band even collected itself in Hungary, but also in Bulgaria and Romania. While being based on the traditional music, Kolinda does not seek to reproduce a falsified folklore. Responsible for history and imagination, Kolinda creates an oneiric universe, associating country songs and asymmetrical rhythms, jazz improvisations and personal compositions illustrated by texts borrowed from contemporary Hungarian poets. Their instruments come from Balkans, of Iran, of North Africa and Turkey. Kolinda diverts them of their usual function, uses them as symbols and mingles them with modern instruments. Dissolved in 1979, Kolinda was reformed two years later on the initiative of Peter Dabasi, while joining the Makam group first of all. Since 1984, Kolinda has been playing again under its only name and has published several discs, mainly composed by Peter Dabasi. In 1996 appears the album Osz, testifying to the course carried out by the three founding members of Kolinda (Agnès Zsigmondi, Ivan Lantos et Peter Dabasi) since their separation. It offers several old deeply worked over again pieces, as well as new compositions. Since this reformation has remained without a future, Peter Dabasi has took again the musical direction of the group which is still alive today. (www.ivanlantos.com)

RATING:  8.25 / 10

.