Interview on Népzene.hu

Karolin Benkő's interview in the portrait series of Népzene.hu (=folkmusic.hu) titled The"mysterious voice", Andrea Gerák

Ten years abroad, two years between* (for * see Editor's note in bottom) Sweden and Hungary - right now and according to her plans, more often in Hungary - rejoicing the audience of all ethnicities, ages or music tastes with velvety, tinkling-soaring voice. On the 30th of March, she joined the Fringe Festival program with a concert at Vörösmarty tér and Teátrum Hajó.

What kind of songs did you sing at the Hajó, in the "Set Forth Along a Road" program?
Mainly Hungarian, Turkish and Irish songs were on the repertoire. It was a 40-minute show, mostly with acapella songs, this much was a good length. I also fit a real exotic piece into it, a song from the Solomon Islands... The Vörösmarty tér audience was very much mixed, moving around, most of them strangers, but I am used to this - and they received it well.

Solomon Islands are indeed far from Hungarian melodies... How did it make it into the chosen ones?
There is a song which was arranged by the Deep Forest long ago, called "Sweet Lullaby". It became a big hit. I liked it too and recently I heard another version of it by a Canadian composer, that one is also great. I started to search for the roots of this song and found the original which is a little song from the islands: it was recorded 40 years ago*, performed by an indigenous woman.

Which means that although you are a Hungarian folk singer, you don't exclude foreign melodies either.
No, not at all... While I look for Hungarian folk songs first - if I find one that would fit into that particular show or music offered to me for cooperation. If not, I will take something else. The point is that something in it has to capture me, touch me. For me, the most important is the aesthetic experience, the feeling I can convey.

And what "captures" you?
For example a charming little song, in Baegu language... It was quite difficult to learn the lyrics by the way, had to do it syllable by syllable - but I made it at the end. Not so long ago, I heard a a Finnish song in a church with a melody completely different from Hungarian church chants, still it spoke to my heart.
I like Spanish sound too: it is especially exciting because I discover a kind of parallelism between Spanish and Hungarian music in one song after the other in the works of a musician collegue Ángel Orós (Cambridge 2003 by his artist name and he did most of the music to the Fringe show). About one motive or another, instantly comes to my mind its Hungarian folk song "counterpart", even if originally they had nothing to do with each other, they still fit very well.

The music of Cambridge and other you are working with uses electronica pretty much...
Right, and I don't find this as a reason to be barred, even from folk music genres. Everything depends on the complete sound, the impact, the musical-aesthetical experience created. Electronic music also has its own right within the ethnic genre, one just has to know how to dose and form the elements.

By the way, how are you doing with Swedish songs?
Their pronounciation is very difficult, therefore not too well...*

Do you like your Swedish life?
Yes I do. In many regards, days are easier, more organized, fluent, of better quality and cooler than in Hungary. But despite all difficulties, this is still my country and the "Hungarian spirit" can't be compared. Otherwise Swedes also keep their folklore: traditional music and dance is always part of events. A fact though that the dancehouse culture we are familiar with is not so common over there. Of course, it also depends on that the biggest city where I live, Stockholm is much smaller than Budapest - so it is logical that music and cultural life in general is less colorful than in the Hungarian capital. That's why we did Hungarian dancehouse for them. :-)

What other program are you preparing for, while here?
Those who are interested, can see this "festival show" at Benczúr Klub on the 9th of April, in a little bit extended version, with more new songs. I might put a Russian or Gypsy song on the repertoir, but I still have time, for now I am forming it, thinking it over, organizing it. Maybe, there will be one more concert.

Is the summer also booked?
Looks like I have a lot of invitations, cooperations, many of them are in other countries and I am glad about them. I have contact with a lot of foreigner musicians, like in England or Spain. In Hungary, I am planning things together with FolkFree and we also found each other with Berkó, and in Sweden with Barozda. Despite of the busy schedule I know and the disease I fought recently taught me to know there are limits and one has to be able to say "Stop." and find a balance. But of course, I will try to take on those that I feel really important. I have a lot to do: amongst others, I would like to publish an older album of mine, "Árva az a madár" (Lonely Is The Bird) as a correct CD, in an expanded form.

What do you like most in your profession?
I enjoy singing solo, as well as breathing together with a band. I like that I can reach into this unfailing, bottomless treasure chest, take out a gem, admire it and set it into a frame so that it can become a jewel. And that others can also admire it.

- Karolin Benkő

ORIGINAL ARTICLE IN HUNGARIAN

(Editor's note: *= factual corrections made compared to the Hungarian text)

From the Pacific to the Atlantic

A song travelling through the ether, after having been recorded 40 years ago in a village of Malaita, Solomon Islands in the South Pacific. A folk song called Rorogwela, a lullaby sung by an elderly woman.

Since then, the melody became well known, such names composed music to it as Deep Forest or Jan Garbarek, or recently the Canada based Existence Records gathered electronica masters to remix the song and presented Deep Forest Sweet Lullaby Remixed album with 16 artists.

Andrea Gerak's voice appears in two other versions, composed by the Spanish Cambridge which are spreading around all over the world on websites such as Last FM, YouTube or SoundClick.

Last week the Rorogwela Sunset Mix was featured at the 100th edition of Electrical Language Podcast and now it is played on AMPed, the Official Podcast of the Association of Music Podcasting, Andrea herself introducing the track.

Listen to the AMPed Show #102 online, with an international artist selection from Russia, Sweden, UK or download it

Electrical Language Podcast no 100

Listen to the 100th edition of Electrical Language Podcast where Andrea introduces one of her songs in cooproduction with Cambridge 2003 (Ángel Orós)



A weekly 30 minute podcast of Podsafe indie music from the UK and beyond, brought to you by Gabor Kovacs from Hampshire, UK. The music ranges from acoustic to electronica to "indie rock". The electrical language podcast plays good music from: Hungary, Iceland, Malta, Sweden as well as the UK, North America, Australia and New Zealand.

Two songs in Top 10 on SoundClick!

SoundClick, the premier destination among music communities is celebrating its 10th anniversary. They used the First Internet Charts (compiled in various genres from streamed plays and hot votes), and today, we are proud to see that on the World Fusion Charts, two songs are in Top 20 where Andrea Gerak is singing!

Don't Fall Asleep is #2
This song also has a great position on the World Music Charts: #24!

And Yay, I've Been Freezing is #7

The fact that Andrea met
Cambridge 2003 (Ángel Orós) exactly through SoundClick some time ago, and the fruits of their co-operation are spreading around at other cyber places like Last FM, MySpace, YouTube and at live performances, gives one more reason to thank the staff of this independent music community for their work.

And these tracks will not be the last songs where these two artists work together.

Rorogwela Sunset Mix video

You can also open the video's YouTube page and write your comment there.