If you hear the Hungarian guitarist Sándor Szabó for the first time, you will think that you are discovering the guitar completely a new during every listening minute. You will be fascinated as you discover that Szabó doesn't simply let us have a glimpse of foreign tonal worlds and cultures through some tiny windows. Instead he graws us into own musical macrocosm in a gentle but all the more compelling manner. And there is truly much to be discovered here: inspiration from the Near East and Far East, a new awareness of his own Hungarian traditions of folk music, classical conceps of form, as well as much, much space for the free flow of thoughts and ideas improvisation. Not only is Szabó's musical vocabulary unusual: in addition to the "conventional" guitar, the Hungarian also plays instruments with 8, 10 or even 16 strings and frequently relies on custom-made designs with a special "Eastern" sound. Szabó succeeds in something that is a rare feat in music: the astonishes the listener, he is the seducer who every listener with a slight penchant for what is special is only all too willing to follow.

Sándor Szabó was born in Hungary in 1956. At the end of the Seventies, after extensively studying the music of a great variety of cultures, Szabó became increasingly involved with improvisation. At the same time, the influences of Arabia, India, as well as the Far East and those of his homeland, can be distinctly heard in his way of playing guitar.

Szabó's trio SzaMaBa is among the most successful improvisational ensembles in Hungary. The trio's main emphasis is on - what else? - world music with all of its contemporary and experimental forms of expression. Up to now, Szabó has repeatedly toured throughout Europe and performed at numerous festivals. Moreover Szabó is particularly interested in the development of "new" guitar variations whit a tonal character tending towards a Far Eastern and Arabic sound.

Acoustic Music Records Katalog 98/99