S�nd�rgo - Tamburocket Hungarian Fireworks

Fast and furious, fingers flying with a fiery panache, S�nd�rg are a band with pedigree. Listening to the band play, you soon hear it's nothing like traditional violin-led Hungarian music. S�nd�rg's sound is light, springy and delicately plucked. Their signature instrument is the tambura, a mandolin-like instrument, probably of Turkish origin, used by the South Slav (Serbian and Croatian) communities in Hungary. Most of these people fled the expansion of the Ottoman Empire into the Balkans in the sixteenth century and moved north into Hungary along the river Danube. Most of the South Slav settlements are next to the river in towns like Moh�cs, R�ckeve, Pomaz - and Szentendre, where the S�nd�rg boys grew up. The band is made up of three brothers, �ron, Benjamin and Salamon Eredics, plus cousin D�vid Eredics and Attila Buz�s, the only non-family member, on bass tambura. Although the family name is probably Croatian, the ethnic background is totally mixed, with South Slav, Austrian, Ukrainian and Jewish blood in the family, which shows how absurd it is to think of ethnic borders in the region. Tamburocket is S�nd�rg's second international release and features tunes collected by the composer B�la Bart�k (1881-1945) and the leading Hungarian ethnographer of South Slav music Tiham�r Vujicsics (1929-1975). Bart�k gathered tunes in what is now Serbia, but was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire before the First World War. The tracks featured here include the dance tune 'Drago Kolo', played as a duet by �ron on pr�mtambura (lead tambura) and Salamon on flute; and 'Srpski Madjarik', arranged for the basszpr�mtambura (alto tambura) and cello tambura. The two melodies from Tiham�r Vujicsics were both collected by the Drava river, a tributary of the Danube, which marks much of the border between Hungary and Croatia. The opening 'Jozo' is a nonsensical love song, with the original Croatian bagpipe part transferred onto the samica, a small, home-made tambura. The closing 'Kolovodja' is a dance song for a kolo ring dance, the most popular folkdance of the South Slavs. 'Marice' is a popular Croatian song named after a girl that all the guys lust after, but can't get. S�nd�rg's arrangement really brings out the different contrapuntal layers of the group and displays some really virtuoso playing. 'Evo Srcu' features two slower Serbian melodies from Vojvodina, the northern region of Serbia where tambura bands are still hugely popular.But as well as reviving the traditional Serbian and Croatian tunes, S�nd�rg are also exploring and reworking music from deeper in the Balkans, with Macedonian, Bulgarian and Turkish influences. 'Hulusination' is based on a Macedonian dance tune, but S�nd�rg have brought in a sort of Chinese snake-charmer's pipe called the hulusi (hence the punning title), plus other wind and percussion to create a powerful trance-like track. The raucous sound returns in 'Hulusi', a Macedonian tune named after the instrument which is reminiscent of the collaborations S�nd�rg have done with the great Gypsy sax player Ferus Mustafov. What S�nd�rg combine brilliantly is a respect for the traditions, a desire to innovate and a fizzing virtuosity. They are currently one of the most exciting bands in Europe.