The group HolddalaNap (‘Moon&Sun’) was founded by experienced Hungarian folk musicians. With their debut album ‘Dandala‘ 2015, soon they were selected to the 10 groups who could represent Hungarian world music in Fono Café, the 0th day before the WOMEX 2015 in Budapest.
“ What they do in the song Hold és felhő (‘Moon and Cloud’)should be taught in a world music class. The final song on the album (Itt ülök fenn kerek mennyben ‘I sit here in Round Heaven’) which is a cover of a Transylvanian prayer, is one of the best thing what happened in the modern folk scene lately.” (Lángológitárok)
When their second album ‘Dancing with the Universe‘ 2018, was presented in Barcelona-Tradicionarius: the member of World Music Chart in Catalonia listed the album between the 10 best’s of the Year!
In the article: “Unique Miracles in Hungarian Folk Music” of the leader Hungarian musical journal Lángoló Gitárok: HolddalaNap is one of the bands.
The group brings together own poetry and essence of traditional music, they add a lot of improvisation and wonderful singing, and create their unique sound by using authentic folk instruments like Hungarian lute, citera, baglama, guitar, kaval, zurna, violin, tapan, daf, etc.
The voices of the singer, song-writer, shaman-researcher Anna Gulyás – music pedagogist of House of Music Hungary, fits very well with the voices of her roma friends: they work with two brilliant roma singers, who sang with great success also in different WOMEXs. Guszti Balogh is a member of the group, and Monika Lakatos (Romengo) was guest singer of their albums. They are accompaigned by masters of Hungarian folk-music: Lídia Draskóczy violinist received several times the Prima award, László Szlama received Junior Prima award, he teaches in the Music Academy Hungarian lute and zitar. They mix in their concerts the presentation of traditions with their ‘new music’ borned of their comun dreams, and they make dance the audience for hungarian, gipsy and other nation’s rythms, like latin rythms performed perfectly by Caspar Thorpe, their brilliant guitarist. It is a music borned from friendships and love, and listening them, You can fill that bombasthic positive energy.
The outcome is magical: it reaches the soul and lifts up the spirit. At the same time it makes you dance and moves you to the depth of rituals. They often make concerts with theater and dance elements. Creating new music based on ethno music for them is not only means to use motivums, elements, instruments, techniques inspired on ethno music, but more than that, to try to recreate the ritual role of the music.
The songs are often dealing with social, ecological and spiritual questions with great empathy, like the life of gipsy people, migration, the war of Ukraine, ecological problems: they have a whole concert for the Nature also. The last song of their new CD is a prayer for peace performed in Hungarian, lovari gipsy, English, and Arabian languages. In the concerts they use artistic projection to help to catch the content of the songs.
In the last years they toured with great success in 15 countries. Their concerts for children are also spectacular: they can give a musical folk-story, a dance-house party, a children concert with giant puppets and a magical concert for adults: in the same event! That is why they are guests of all big festivals in Hungary, and well-come to tours, and they are invited to show in workshops – like in the National Ethnographic Museum of Warsaw in Mazurka Festival in 2018 -to express their methods of integrate traditions to people’s life.
Musicians:
Anna Gulyás (vocal, baglama), Guszti Balogh (vocal), Lídia Draskóczy (violin), László Szlama (vocal, hungarian lute, citera), Gergely Tar (percussion, vocal), Caspar Thorpe – guitar), Árpád Vajdovich (contrabass, bass-guitar, vocal)
