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Ferenc Kiss
A finely wrought iron gate is reproduced on the cover in a mirror image of itself. On the back cover, the title, which translates to "Outlaws of the City" describes the project as "obscure organic music," and "spiritual product of Hungary." It's an accurate, yet inadequate description. Open the iron gates, and wander into the heart and formidable mind of Ferenc Kiss. All of the music is based on Hungarian folk forms, and utilizes voices and acoustic folk instruments with a smattering of brass and electric bass. Kiss has created something rare and wonderful--a melding of modern sensibilities with folk music that is intriguing and original. He has carefully and precisely recorded all the woody, windy tones and timbres, and thoughtfully set them as passages or as layerings of texture. Stately melodies wind in leisurely fashion through shifting chord progressions. Rhythmically, those tracks that can be categorized as dance tunes have quirky Central European or Balkan matrixes--there are no references to Western Afrocentric grooves. And yet certain pop bands or artists are called to mind--like Roxie Music or the Beatles. The music is darkly personal; Kiss' singing exhibits the same eccentricity one associates with Donald Fagen or Van Dyke Parks, albeit with less nasality than the former, or the preciousness of the latter. There is also no escaping the influence of Bart�k and in places, Kurt Weil.
Mr. Kiss does explain who the Outlaws of the City are. They are the many artists, poets and musicians who have inspired and nurtured him in his own work, all of them urban dwellers. This CD combines both heritage and contemporary identity into an emotional, yet intellectually bracing creation, one that has obviously been a long time in the forming. A work with this much weight will be hard to top, but if Mr. Kiss continues to allow his soul to be fed by his fellow musicians and artists, he will have a deep well of musical sustenance from which to draw. - Michal Shapiro
Available from cdRoots
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