Authentic guardians of South Slavic music and its radical future from Hungary.

The most interesting discovery of the Hungarian scene in recent years, which is different from everything we have heard from this country so far. Söndörgő have recorded with Macedonian saxophonist Ferus Mustafov, released a collaborative album with the renowned Amsterdam Klezmer Band in 2018, and won dozens of international awards including the Songlines Music Award. In the summer of 2024, the band released the long-awaited transformative album Gyezz, featuring the outstanding jazz saxophonist CHRIS POTTER. Gyezz garnered rave reviews, with Jazzwise hailing them as “authentic guardians of South Slavic music and its radical future” and Songlines calling them “A riveting tour de force”. In addition, the album reached number one on the World Music Charts Europe chart and also reached number one on the Top Of The World Songlines chart.

Söndörgő is composed of descendants of immigrants who fled to Hungary from the Turkish troops from Serbia in the 16th century. Their rhythmically sharp and not yet well-known music is a stark contrast to the Hungarian bands that have been known so far, in which the dulcimer and violin play the main role. Although stylistically based on South Slavic roots, it does not try to preserve them in museum folklore and is open to all related influences.

Söndörgő play instruments that sound familiar, but actually belong to a distinct family of Balkan tambouras. Their lute-tambour resembles a five-stringed guitar, the bass-tambour looks like a double bass with a metal eye, as folk musicians often played this large instrument while walking and had it suspended from their bodies. The virtuosically mastered strings sound like surreal Balkan bluegrass at a sharp tempo and were a shocking discovery for Western audiences. Until then, they had known Hungarian music mainly through Romani bands, or the Muzsikás group or similar ensembles that drew inspiration from the styles of the Hungarian mountain communities of Transylvania.

The band was founded north of Budapest in the town of Szentendre, which became the centre of the exiled Serbian community from the 16th century onwards. The line-up is led by the Eredics brothers, sons of veteran musician Kalmán Eredics of the famous Vujicsics tamburas band from southern Hungary. In addition to the tanbur, they play accordion, flutes and saxophone. In the Serbian cultural capital of Novi Sad, they were the first Hungarians to win a prize in a competition for tambourine orchestras. The album Tamburising – Lost Music of the Balkans was placed in the prestigious poll of the British magazine Songlines. Söndörgő have been the star of Womad, Babel Med, Pohoda, Respect, Roskilde, Sziget and other festivals. They are coming to Prague with their critically acclaimed album Gyezz (2024).