"The diverse world of music in the Eastern-European region will be presented this year on Bahia stage by bands from fourteen different nations - all of them well known and celebrated in their own countries. “It is our important goal to strengthen the role of Sziget as a ‘cultural bridge’ between the Eastern and Western part of Europe. “ - said József Kardos, program manager of the Sziget.Consequently, besides Hungarian performers there will be Macedonian “pseudo-immigrant-cabaret”, Czech experimental music, Slovakian reggae, contemporary-etno Polish dance music, Ukrainian hip-hop and many other musical treats. The jubilee, 15th Sziget expects it’s visitors between the 8th and 15th of August.
The New Musical Express in connection with the foundation of LGT in August, 1971 wrote: “The new rock sensation could come from the East, not the West.”. The Bahia stage at Sziget in 2007 proves that Eastern-European music is still a distinct world by its own with deep and exciting roots and sparkling musical life. Presenting the region is important from several considerations.
On one hand the international professional audience explicitly demands to see Eastern-European bands and on the other hand the international and local crowd should hear and see that there is life beyond the well-known, famous stars - and what a life! This year on Bahia stage, fourteen bands of different nation and style will represent fourteen countries of the region, all of them well known and celebrated in their own countries.
The Disciplin A Kitschme is one of the rock legends of Central-Eastern-Europe. It was established in 1982, starting from a post-punk line, the ex-Yugoslavian band is out of the ordinary in many ways.
The Macedonian Foltin existing since 1995 is a surrealistic, emotional and vital mixture of elements which are difficult to join for the first hearing: Macedonian folk music, etno-punk, disco, bossa, klezmer and experimental music. In their own words, this never before heard music intended by the composers to connect the east with the west is a “pseudo-immigrant-cabaret”.
One of the most exciting representative of the Czech experimental music scene with earnest traditions is FruFru, from the Czech Republic. Established in 2000, they have worked together with respected Czech artists such as Iva Bittova also acknowledged in Hungary or Pavel Frajt.
The well known and appreciated Polemic is the honorary and authorized ambassador of reggae and ska by our Northern neighbors. The band has spinned and cradled rhythms and their crowd since nineteen years, they had more then eight hundred concerts in ten countries together with aces like the Skatelites, Selecter, Ska P, Dr. Ring Ding, Presidents of the USA, or Hungarian Ladánybene 27.
We may state it clearly that the 2004 founded Fusedmarc from Vilnius is the most important pop music production of the Baltic nowadays, which could perform a chillingly cool and world standard production anywhere on the globe.
The Polish Psio Crew founded in 2004 molds local folk music into a 21st century form - using jazz, hiphop and ragamuffin - and shows us nevertheless authentically with a charming singer’s voice as a bonus what contemporary-etno Polish dance music is.
The most famous Slovenian band after and next to Laibach, arrives for the first time to Bahia Stage on Sziget. Srečna Mladina formed in 1993 had several transformations since, but their production which has come from punk attitudes to Balkan music influenced alternative art-rock, has been one of the paramount productions of the Slovenian alternative musical scene.
The Vuneky collective coming up on Bahia stage with a program varying electro-acoustic, eclectic, characteristic atmospheres has many film-like conceptions.
We may greet the probably most famous Bulgarian rock band, the Wickeda on Sziget again, this year on the Bahia stage. They had countless concerts around the world from Hungary to the USA since their first CD came out in 1999. They made crowds dance like crazy with their impulsive rock-etno-funk-reggae-ska-like music which might be bizarre but it is equally charming for Manu Chao and Biohazard fans.
Luna Amara (also known as Bitter Moon abroad) is the new idol and hero of the young Romanian crowd. They fully accept the attitudes of this generation, which doesn’t want any common cause with the older, bribed generation, yet wants to act for its country. The band was formed in Cluj Napoca in 1999 by the name of Tangara Noise and with some changes among the members it received its present name and since then it is one of the most well-known Romanian alternative rock bands.
The TNMK is the most successful hiphop band in the Ukraine (TNMK: Tanok na Maydani Kongo, i.e. Dance on Kongo Square). The band was established in Harkov, 1990. They prefer traditional musical instruments on their performances and CD-s, rather then samplers and drum machines. Their lyrics are smart and witty. They are playing an original contemporary fusion music performed in a way that traits of jazz, rock and funk are also audible in it. Their album from 2005 was voted album of the year by the biggest Ukrainian music portal, the music.com.ua
Music built up with surgical accuracy: this is the way how one has outlined the music of Bilk founded in Zagreb by three university students, Tin Oberman, Janko Novoselic and Luka Vrbanic (architect, medic and conservatory students) and indeed, the sound they have produced since their forming is a trademark by today. Their first album, This Bilk is Radioactive perfectly characterizes the drum-base-synthesizer-guitar built breakbeat energy bomb which has caused sensation in Austria after Croatia as well.
And here you are, the new herald of Latvian rock, the Double Faced Eels (DFE) founded in 1999. The four member alternative rock band from Riga jumped to the top of the Latvian hit lists with their first single in 2004, since then all what’s coming from them (singles, albums, concerts) is a revelation.
What makes the Estonian boy-rock band, Ursula awfully popular in the Baltic is the acapella singing and white-reggae traits in their music and the rude and dirty sex in their lyrics.
Concerts of local bands will stir tensions more then ever before. Take Üzgin Üver, the most exciting band of the domestic experimental world music or the Chackrahacker, which succeeded to stitch together the world of John Zorn and Astor Piazzola on the checkered cover of the Sea-Gull or Kis Erzsi Zene with it’s magical folk music and fabulous female vocals or the standard-bearer of narrative jazz-punk and Dadaist drum ‘n’ bass, the Tudósok.
Not to mention the toughest samans of Hungarian ancestral metal the Korog or the band which brought the finest alloy of underground, etno and jazz, the legendary Kampec Dolores, or Zuboly which joints hip-hop with ancestral etno and jazz or Ez a divat, supported by Zoltán Kiss who was a success in Austria at an impertinently young age. Also we have the outstanding Pop Ivan mixing avant-jazz from New York with the etno of the nyolcker (Budapest, 8th district), the least respective professors of Hungarian punk, the Flash, the only post-band of the biggest Hungarian band, the Bizottság, the excellent dada-jazz Zámbó Happy Dead Band and many-many others."
For more information visit
Szigetfestival.com
13.08.2007