Live at WOMEX Budapest

Ágnes Herczku and her band, led by Nikola Parov, are standout musicians on the Hungarian folk scene, and their album Bandázom, was a Top of the World review in #107. This is a live recording of their impressive showcase at last year's WOMEX, supplemented by four studio tracks. The music is largely original, but imbued with the sounds of the Hungarian and Bulgarian tradition. Perhaps because it was a showcase and the band felt the need to impress, the pace is pretty relentless with fiddles racing from one dance to another. The musicianship is absolutely superb and it's a brilliantly tight and focused live performance. But you find yourself breathless by the time it slows down on track four, and wishing for some soul. It comes in the form of ‘Se Nem Eső’ (Neither Rain, nor Dew), a slow, airy love song with jazzy piano touches. It's followed by ‘Megfújtak Azok A Szelek’ (The Winds Have Blown) a Transylvanian-style song that opened Bandázom.