Last night, on the 10th of August, Andrea Gerak was the guest of the weekly Folk Music Show at Tilos (=Forbidden) Radio, Hungary's oldest and biggest independent station.
You can read Andrea's personal impressions in her Facebook note
"And what was amazing: the chat room. We had listeners from Canada, Spain, Sweden, 2 or 3 from Slovakia, Denmark, 3 people from Italy..."
Here you can listen to the whole show (2 hours of which Andrea appears in the first 80 minutes or so). You can follow the conversation by reading the English transcript below, enjoy!
LISTEN TO PART 1 (Show starts at 2:38 with music)9:00
Evantia: Good evening everybody, this is the Tilos Radio Folk Music Show, as always on Mondays from 10pm to Midnight. Imre (aka DJ Qtewly, another host of the show) is at the Sziget with Tecso Band, therefore I will be your host tonight. And thanks God, I have a very nice guest as well, Andi Gerak, and she brought some music with her, we are just battling with little technical problems, but sooner or later we will play them. Hi Andi and welcome! (literal translation: God has brought you here!)
Andrea: Hi Evantia, and thank you very much for the invitation, it was a nice surprise!
Evantia: It was a surprise for me too, because as I knew, you were in Sweden and couldn't guess that we would meet at the concert of Tecso Band, and it was a pleasant surprise.
Andrea: Yes, it was very, very good! Amongst the listeners, there are certainly some who know that the Tecso Band played last night on the A38 Boat and I went to see and listen to them, then at the end we had a good dance together, and that's how we found out who was who...
Evantia: ...because we have only met so far on various folk music email lists on the internet. Andi, you brought some music with you, and said that these were new works or collections, or I don't even know how to call them, what are they?
Andrea: Why, there are new ones, that's right, like the one in the player right now, ready for play, titled If I Was a River.
Evantia: Which...?
Andrea: ...which was made with Fabatka Band. Fabatka is a band from Sepsiszentgyorgy (Sfântu Gheorghe, Transylvania, Romania), lead by Feri Segercz who will introduce the company at the beginning, because this recording was taken at Budapest Jazz Club in the spring, at the Celebration of Hungarian Jazz. And this is a rather interesting collaboration with them: I met Feri last summer at the Magyarfalu Days. Magyarfalu is the most Eastern Hungarian Csango village, and that was my first trip there. I kept contact with Feri, and he asked me to do one or two songs with them for this jazz festival.
Evantia: I am very curious about this recording! There is an email list of tanchaz people in Transylvania, and I wrote there last night that you would come, so we can hope that Feri Segercz is listening us as well, if he is not on vacation or at a camp somewhere... Because perhaps, they have the Valaszut Camp now? That's what I think, that Valaszut Camp is on right now, so if he is not there, hopefully he is listening to us. Now I am experimenting with the technics, so if it will not start, I apologize in advance, but I hope it will start.
(track plays, applause, the band leader introduces the members, then music. Song stops abruptly)
17:05
Evantia: Yeah well, this ended in a little bit strange way, we didn't keep track, sorry for that.
Andrea: Well, this song was pretty long...
Evantia: So where was this song recorded? At the Jazz Club?
Andrea: Yes, at the Jazz Club in the spring, for the Celebration of Hungarian Jazz.
Evantia: With the Fabatka Band. Will you tell us a little bit about Sweden? How is it to be a Hungarian singer over there?
Andrea: Strange, very strange, because... ...there are a lot of Hungarians there, in the bigger cities, like Stockholm, Göteborg, Malmö, many people migrated there in '56.
Evantia: And the Bodzafa and Barozda... (Hungarian folk bands from Transylvania)
Andrea: Barozda, yes. Now this is an interesting story with the Barozda, because in 2006, I was invited to the Brugge World Music Festival in Belgium, and I had to find a band. I was there in Stockholm, alone, a Hungarian folk singer, what do I do? (laughing) And on the net...
Evantia: Well, I can imagine this desparation, seriously, where do I get a violonist from, or such things as a double bass player...
Andrea: Eventually, it was very simple, because I went on the band link directory of the Folkradio site, and the first one on the list was the Barozda. I did a search on them and saw that gee, they were 1 hour distance from me, so this is how the connection began.
Evantia: So cool!
Andrea: Sometimes I sing at events of the Hungarian House, but it's a little rare, at least in Stockholm, Hungarian events are not too common.
Evantia: And around the world?
Andrea: Around the world? Well, I would go with great pleasure to much more places! Exactly now, in these past couple of weeks, mainly, there are several co-operations in a forming phase. Only last week, really, literally in the last few days I got in contact with an Italian producer who is working here with one of the most renown Hungarian producers, and we began to work out the plans for a project in Hungary, Italy and later in Europe. Then, I was also contacted by somebody from another country in Europe with such a... such a... plan, the plan of a happening, event or concert, that... if I think of it, then... I remain speechless and I get goosebumps...
Evantia: By the way, one can see that! (laughing)
Andrea: (laughing) Fantastic! Obviously, I won't say one more word about that,...
Evantia: This is an excellent marketing gimmick! (laughing)
Andrea: (laughing)
Evantia: Yay, sorry, sorry to interrupt you, I just forgot to say that Imre has also arrived and it is quite unusual that he is quiet...
Andrea: (laughing)
Imre: When others talk, I am normally quiet...
(they all laugh)
Evantia: Shall we confute him, Andi? (laughing)
I: Go ahead, if you can... Then I say hello, good evening!
(Imre announces at which frequencies is the radio station available, the website, etc. Then he talks about the Sziget Festival, the Hungaricum Village where there are all kind of folky things, music, dance and products. And talks about the Tecso Band concert next day, and the first festival in Nagykereki, the Tecso Band tour in Romania on the 16th in Zsombolya, and in Temesvar, Timisoara)
26:00
Imre: So, here and now again, I thank Andrea for the beautiful contribution on the A38 Boat, at the concert of Tecso Band...
Andrea: Yay, I thank you so much, it was so great to meet these man and listen to their music! I think I was not able to stay still for one single minute when I was listening to their music, simply... one must move to it, dance to it.
Evantia: Now imagine that Imre has listened to them 10 000 times or so, and me 1000 times, let's say, and it's simply impossible to get bored with.
Imre: (joking about an old Hungarian advertisement with the theme of " impossible to get bored with." All laughing, then he says good night. Music. End of Part 1)
Stay tuned for Part 2, Andrea will sing a song in the studio!
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