interview by Richard Johnson
én Op. 80530 CD (Peripheral Conserve, Hungary, 2013): You can be pretty much guaranteed a good listening experience if Zsolt Sőrés name is noted somewhere on the cover of a release, even if only, as in the case here, by virtue of a credit in the Thanks List. However, if that alone was not enough to entice one, then the very fact that Op. 80530 represents the latest work by Budapest’s én, or Pál Tóth as he is more formerly known, should really hit everything home. Pál Tóth is a pivotal figure in Hungary, operating a once illegal radio show from Budapest for many years and occasionally given to cooking up his own sounds from plunderphonics and collages, some of which have even made it onto an album by the long-serving The Sonic Catering Band, a trio delighting in the weaving together of abstract sounds plus more recently collaborating with the likes of Andrew Liles and Colin Potter. He also collaborates with Zsolt himself in Ahad and én, an improvisation duo with a firm no compromise approach to their work. And it is from these reference points one can perhaps begin to build a picture that only then even adds up to a fraction of the story.
Pál Tóth’s radio show for Tilos Rádió, No Wave, has been something of a meeting point for unique and fantastic minds in music, and those interested in its better and more intelligent realms, for a long time and has been considered subversive in a country where free-thinking still continues to be straitjacketed as rigorously as possible by the dominant forces. It is also a place where people like Zsolt can introduce guests and discuss all those important matters that inform or help sustain the visions of those featured on the show, plus is additionally where Pál Tóth can delve into a record collection of his that’s apparently the biggest of its kind (being, as it is, dedicated to sound art, psychedelia, avant-garde, improvisation, punk, ‘noise’, etc. records) in the country.
To state that Pál Tóth did not cut as one Hungary’s most important underground music figures would only serve as an injustice; a complete undermining of the years he has committed to making ‘free’ music as freely available as possible. So what of his own music? As previously noted, the work of én generally derives from the worlds of collage, plunderphonics and beating into new shapes of sounds already at odds with most people’s perception of what makes for ‘good’ music. On Op. 80530, however, one piece spanning over 41 minutes assumes a bass-heavy drone posture, where blankets of textural gush and stormy timbres fold over and into each other like lovers caught in the deep throes of passion. It is an area of music that can generally fall one way or the other, but én has a keen ear and is clearly adept at creating a shifting soundworld whose nuances, throbs and sways never stray once from being captivating.
Throughout the album’s course, meaty rumbles later give way to something largely more sinewy and tonal, all the while retaining the sense of movement necessary to buoy such music along. Everything sounds weighty and kinda earthy yet just soft enough to avoid the coldness often encountered in such music. What could, in the wrong hands, merely end up as a collection of cod-drones assembled like a nod towards long dead post-industrial statements instead is psychedelic, labyrinthine, alchemic and charged with an all-encompassing power. If all the energy and passion of Pál Tóth was to be suitably harnessed into a sonic broth where regular forms have no place, then Op. 80530, it could be argued, encapsulates everything sublimely. This is wintry music for the impassioned. Suck it up.
interview:
pál tóth
Here now is a brief interview with Pál Tóth, a very dedicated and enthusiastic individual from Budapest who calls each of his radio shows an ‘emission’ and feels, very strongly, that the music featured in them should be played to the more receptive ears of young children. It is hard to disagree.
Richard Johnson: First, the obvious, how easy has it been to make music of your nature in Hungary over the years? How has the climate changed in this respect? Is it easier now or would you agree with something Zsolt once told me not so long ago that, really, nothing much has changed?
Pál Tóth: First of all, it is important to notice that this kind of music doesn’t attract a mass of people, neither in Hungary nor anywhere else in the world. This is stratum music. Before the system changing (?? or end of socialism – 1990), Hungary was closed from the world in many points of view. Many things could not reach the people. There wasn’t even internet [during] that time. So, the performer and a receiver stratum couldn’t evolve. The system changing (??) brought a huge euphoria, people looked to the change in a very positive way. In the beginning they accepted new things very easily, especially out of their obscurity, because they wanted to be part of the change. Through the effect of Tilos Rádió and Szünetjel Festival (Pause Sign Festival), a performer and a receiver stratum started taking shape, which was concerned with new music. But this is a long-term process.
At the same time, we can obviously say that the musicians and concert organisers got no local support. The organising of the festival faced financial difficulties, and in the beginning of 2000, it broke off [completely]. The festival was missing very much, while other festivals came. The very determining role of Tilos weakened also, as many commercial radio stations occurred, which were characterised by commerce and daily noise pollution. And to top it all, in line with the world economical decrease, the support also fell off in foreign countries. But thanks to these prior effects and the more influential Internet, the world opened. In the long run, we can say that the positive and the negative tendencies [negated] each other, and now the situation is that nothing changed. More and more young [people] are concerned with this music, which will hopefully have an effect. But the cultural environment has deteriorated. I think people are less interested and tolerant.
However, I think there will always be a tight receiver stratum, which is opened to new mental challenges. But as a musician, it is getting hard to make a living from it. I feel this country and its performers are being too closed. The mix between the performers is hardly perceptible, which would shape the attitude. But lately I recognise some change. But there is no platform where we could frequently meet, and where people could stand for the interest of the musicians.
RJ: Does your music in any way relate to the immediate circumstance or surroundings it has been created in? If so, how?
PT: It is context-sensitive. It is not unusual that I work with sounds of the environment, as those are the basics of my music. Of course, I almost never use them in their original forms. For example, a car rally (??), building sounds, the sounds of the streets of Shezen or my computer’s inner sound. Some future sound material is on my computer, in which I would work together my own records; one song from a stupa impregnation and the sea sound. Of course, I do not always use environmental sounds. For several years I’d rather ‘compose’ the music. It reflects the current effects and my actual thoughts about my music. The performance depends on the degree of freedom, which I define. According to this, keeping the basic structure, the performances can change by improvisation by the space, the reaction of the public and by my own current state.
