Tovafelé: Music from Beyond the Carpathian Mountains

Tuz Lángja are a young Hungarian band, drawing on the traditions of the Csángó people, who live in an enclave in Moldavia, the region of north-eastern Romania. They speak an archaic form of Hungarian and their music has been a perpetual source of inspiration for the Hungarian folk and dancehouse (táncház) scene. Several members of the band live in the village of Tordas, outside Budapest, where some táncház movement veterans, for example Péter Éri of Muzsikás, have moved to in the last 15 years, creating an artistic neighbourhood with a unique atmosphere.

The album is co-produced by Péter Éri and Endre Liber of the Tükrös Ensemble and their considerable experience gives the band a sort of safety net to treat the traditions playfully without betraying them. Tuz Lángja is a sort of Csángó round-dance, but they don't leave the Csángá tradition untouched. They add the flavours of current Romanian music and Gypsy swing, to name a couple. Django Reinhardt gets a reference (and a pun) in one of the tracks – ‘Csángó Reinhardt’, which is a jazzy cover of a traditional dance called a gergelyes, with the notable cimbalom playing of Ferenc Zimber, a student of Kalman Balogh. A fresh, zippy but still sensitive album, showcasing the new táncház scene.