Back in 1995 in the riverside town of Szentendre, Hungary, the Eredics brothers met bass player Attila and together they began to make music. Some twenty-one years later the boys are still filling the world's eardrums with their unstoppable tamburitza music. This entirely live album is a rip-roaring travelogue of audio postcards from stages across Europe: from Denmark to Paris, Belgium, Germany to Italy and of course from Hungary. Their music takes heart from the Eastern European folk canon. Provenance in their original works is heard from Serbian, Croatian, Macedonian, Turkish, Jewish and gyspy traditions. The tambura instrument too sits at the centre chakra: a small, agile plucked instrument musicologically aligned with the more commonly known mandolin. The tambura matched with winds and accordion is a perky sound, curious and communicable all at once. Söndörgo's traditional repertoire pulls from the back catalogue of the old masters, Béla Bartók and Tihamér Vujicsics included therein. The album melts open with "Sa", a low drone and wandering melody call listeners and the band to arms before the drums pound and breakneck speed is taken up. "Drago Kolo" spotlights the tambura here in balletic duo with a frenetic flute, the audience's distant cheers signal the playful mood. ' "Tonci" is a summery accelerating jig with gleeful almost demented) melody (Söndörgo's speciality). The album closes with full-on dance number "Jovano", complete with an end-of-the-night anthem. Söndörgo hark to tradition whilst flag-bearing at the vanguard of newness. This album is their live testament captured in crystalline clarity; it's recommended that you turn up the dial and play it loud.
