Karácsony éjen csillagok zenélnek
Szokatlan bevezető hangolta a közönséget a Fanfara Complexa és a Vágtázó Csodaszarvas koncertjére: tudományos előadás! Hoppál Mihály néprajztudós Sámánutazás című, filmvetítéssel megtámogatott kurzusa. (Nem mellesleg: zsúfolt ház előtt zajlott, az A38 állóhajó kiállítótermében.) Teljes cikk elolvasható itt: http://www.riff.hu/index.php?article=585
Special - Dr. Atilla Grandpierre II. VCS, 2010. may 03. - rockradio.de
2010. május 03 (20-22Uhr Montag),
rockradio.de, UNZA UNZA TIME, Thomas Jonscher
http://www.rockradio.de/sendung_info.php?auswahl_lfdnr=5523&name_der_seite1=UNZA%20UNZA%20TIME!
Special - Dr. Atilla Grandpierre II - VÀGTÀZÒ
CSODASZARVAS aka Der rasende Wunderhirsch - der
zweite Teil der Sendung in Kooperation
Special - Dr.Attila Grandpierre II - VÀGTÀZÒ
CSODASZARVAS aka Der rasende Wunderhirsch - der
zweite Teil der Sendung in Kooperation mit
Ungarns Rockkritiker numero uno János Zoltán und
der Germanistin Luca Pittmann.
Ex Oriente lux – light comes from the East. The
magic spirit of ancient Eurasia is conjured.
Shaman power in psychedelic hardcore. Huns from
the Steppes finally triumphed. Primordial
God-feeling. The spell-binding knowledge of the
One and Indivisible Universe. All these are
different formulations of one music group:
VÁGTÁZÓ CSODASZARVAS - The Galloping Wonder
Stag.
Actually, the music of the Galloping Wonder Stag
arises in the same way as the ancient ethnic
music: from the deepest impulses of the human
spirit seeking expression of life’s profound,
enrapturing, unfolding beauty. It is a natural
music, born of the cosmic creative power of
Nature. As the great Hungarian composer Bela
Bartok wrote: “The real ethnic music is a
natural phenomenon free from any cultural
influence, the result of the formative activity
of the unconsciously acting natural force. Such
creations develop with the same organic freedom
as the other living organisms of Nature: the
flowers, animals etc…. Such music expresses the
instinctive manifestation of a peasant’s musical
perception.”...-
Quelle:http://www.myspace.com/vcssz
Der einzige -Fremdtitel- neben Emir Kusturicas
Opener kommt vom Gast der morgigen
Speiche-Sendung: Mr.GandreHimSelf
Driven by the Sun (NRC Handelsblad, Cultureel Supplement, January 15, 2010)
NRC Handelsblad, Cultureel Supplement,
January 15, 2010
Driven by the sun
Hungarian singer Atilla Grandpierre talks about
the magical power of his music
Singer and astrophysicist Atilla Grandpierre is
the founder of folkpunkband Vágtázó
Csodaszarvas, or Galopping Wonderstag. "I stand
on stage as if my last hour has struck."
René van Peer
In the big hall of Petöfi Csarnok, the rock
temple in the Budapest city park, three drummers
beat forcefully pounding rhythms, that get ever
more exciting as fast accents find their way
into the patterns. String instruments join the
ranks with buzzing chords. In this shimmering
setting two bagpipes raise shrill extended
notes, circle around each other in exuberantly
meandering melodies. Then a man in a long white
coat jumps onto the stage. He dances among the
musicians in whirling leaps, before ending up at
a microphone. With raised fist he utters a
protracted scream, which is taken up by the
audience. It sets the tone for a concert of the
Hungarian folkpunkband Vágtázó Csodaszarvas. The
Galopping Wonderstag, as the band's name would
translate into English, appears prominently on a
backdrop behind the band, a radiating sun
between its antlers. It is an ancient Hungarian
totem, a reference to the endless steppe east of
the Ural mountains, the area where the
Hungarians originated. Founded in 2005 by singer
and astrophysicist Atilla Grandpierre the band
combines the boundless energy of punk music with
instruments and melodies from various musical
traditions - of his homeland and of the Asian
steppe plains. Subtlety is not what Grandpierre
is aiming for in his delivery. He hurls his
texts into the audience as if each line ends
with exclamation marks. When he's not singing he
moves around the stage indefatigably. He runs,
he dances, he swirls his arms, makes gestures
that are reminiscent of tai chi. Two hours at a
stretch, without pause. Astonishing, all the
more so when you take his age of 58 years into
account. "It is high voltage music", says
Grandpierre. "I want everybody on stage to play
as if their last hour has struck. All energy of
your life is concentrated in that one moment. It
is music on which life and death depend. I know
that I demand something from my musicians that
is unusual, but for me there is no other way.
With this group I have people around me who are
prepared to do this." Grandpierre already has a
long career in music behind him. For 25 years he
was the front man of the trailblazing group
Vágtázó Halottkémek (the Galopping Coroners),
that won international acclaim and often
performed in the Netherlands. One of their CDs
was even recorded in Eindhoven. Since early
childhood he has been gripped by both music and
the sun. "When I was five years old I told my
father that I wanted to be an astronomer,
because I wanted to study the sun. Two years
later it had slipped my mind and I was convinced
that I should be a singer. When my father
reminded me of my earlier plans, I said I would
become both. Maybe they were childish impulses
at the time, that I forgot afterwards, but in
the end they did come true. I felt that there
should be music with a magical power that nobody
would be able to resist, music holding the
grandest secret of the universe within itself."
What shaped his direction in music was a session
with school friends, at the home of one of them.
They used objects they found there as
instruments. "Some of us were going about with
chairs. I had a metal wash basin with just a bit
of water in which I had a pingpong ball roll
around. It produced extraordinary sounds, but
after a couple of hours I realized that actually
it was extremely boring. It was nothing at all.
I stood up, started to run - right into the
opposite wall. There was a clothes chest
standing there. I started banging on it. I felt
as if letting go of my consciousness: I only
concentrated on what was moving inside me and
began to sing. When I regained my senses my
friends told me that a muezzin lived inside me.
I had never known about that. It must have come
from very deep within me." Experiences such as
this made him decide to carry on with music.
Originally he wanted to make a kind of folk
music, inspired by the traditions from his home
country and from Asia. Just like every other
Hungarian he grew op with the folk songs that
lie at the heart of the musical curriculum of
the country. In Asian music, and especially the
music from Mongolia, he found the intention that
he had discovered within himself. "I was
fascinated by music that had a shamanistic
context. Music that arises on the spot in a
state of heightened consciousness; music that is
intended as a means to establish contact with
the world around you, and that transcends the
personal and individual. This music spans
centuries. It stems from a culture that is
related to the origins of the Hungarians a
thousand years or more in the past. I wanted to
make something in that spirit, with acoustical
instruments to achieve the appropriate intimacy
and to stay close to human proportions, but with
the intensity of a shamanic ritual." It is
eventually in the Galloping Wonderstag that he
has been able to achieve his original aim: his
first band Vágtázó Halottkémek used rock
instruments. It was a band that generated new
ideas with every new album and concert, says
Grandpierre. Life was not always easy for them
under the Hungarian communist regime. Concert
tours abroad were thwarted by the authorities.
When the band was invited to perform at the
Hungary in the Netherlands festival in
Amsterdam, they got their permission to travel
just in the nick of time. Grandpierre's musical
activities never had an adverse effect on his
career as an astrophysicist. He works at the
Konkoly Observatory in Budapest, an institute
for space research, that focuses mainly on
variable stars. As a theoretician Grandpierre
specializes in the characteristics of the
variable star that is closest to the earth - the
sun. He approaches it from an unusual
perspective, that of theoretical biology,
inspired by a book on that subject by the
Hungarian biologist Ervin Bauer. He received it
as a present from his father, who was a
historian and philosopher. "Bauer defined the
basic principles for what you can consider life,
he thought out models that can be applied in a
broad sense. One of those is having autonomous
activity. From that point of view you can see
the sun as a living being. With all its
eruptions of energy it seems to call out: 'I am
alive, can't you see that!' At the institute
people don't understand my work completely, but
they do respect it." As a result of that he
could organize an international conference last
year about the significance of astronomy for
human civilization. He advocated a world view
that pivots around biology rather than physics.
That's where his work as a scientist corresponds
with his music: the sun as a source from which
he and his musicians draw power. One could say
that they call out to the sun: 'We see that you
are alive!' With this energy he inspires his
audience. A concert is a collective event, that
the audience experience as a ritual. On the
other hand, his references to the mythical
origins of the Hungarians could well feed the
growing currents of nationalism. When asked
whether he doesn't run the risk of being used as
a mouthpiece for unsavoury political movements,
he grins. "Those people want to have control
over everything. That was in the communist era,
and it hasn't changed since then. We are far too
unpredictable. They wouldn't want to be
associated with us for the world."
NRC Handelsblad, Cultureel Supplement, January
15, 2010
Translation: René van Peer, June 17, 2010
Galloping Winder Stag - Infinite Asia!, 2009 - eurock.com
2009 eurock.com
http://www.eurock.com/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=1862
Galloping Wonder Stag - Infinite Asia (CD)
Galloping Wonder Stag (VCSSZ) is the newest
release by Atilla Grandpierres new band
following the dissolution of Galloping Coroners
(VHK). The music of VCSSZ explores the realm of
music as ritual as did VHK, but from the
perspective of channeling the sound and spirit
of the Hun Magi who ruled the Steppes during the
Bronze Age. Into this cosmology Atilla
incorporate the essence of Bela Bartok and the
resulting music is absolutely unique and
unbelievable powerful. Thundering percussives
create ceremonial rhythms, that combined with
multi-instrumental strings and winds create a
cosmic hybrid of folk fused with modern “rock”
energy. It has to be heard to be believed.