SOLD-OUT - Hungarian Albummm! #4 - Kexek by Qualitons, guest: Barna Szőke

In the Hungarian Albummm! series, we listen to records in the presence of the composer or performer who created them and who will share his or her experiences in the library of the House of Music Hungary, the ever-expanding archives of which allow us to select the wonderful albums that will be at the heart of this marvellous musical playground. On this occasion, the album of covers of the songs of Kex by Qualitons will be on the turntable, with host Gergely Horváth welcoming guitarist Barna Szőke.

“It was more exciting to hear KEX play than any other band,” Hobo, who started out with them and with their help, wrote at the death of Kex’s emblematic and ingenious singer János Baksa-Soós. The three short years between 1968 and 1971 that Kex gave us were enough for this unrepeatable presence in Hungarian pop music for them to continue to exert an influence in terms of their ability to radiate passion and set an example: “They rebelled without anger or room for doubt.” They frequently performed before Illés, while Tamás Cseh first took to the stage during an intermission in one of their concerts. A Kex concert was at once theatre, stand-up (in today’s terms) and a form of seance. The former frontman had already lived in West Germany for eight years when the oldest members of Qualitons were born in Mezőtúr, and it was more than 40 years later that the band brought to life the Kex songs. And when Qualitons performed these songs at the world-famous KEXP radio station in Seattle, they at last enjoyed some praise and limelight at home.

Those of us who still remember how we used to listen to music back when Little Richard sang from shiny black vinyl discs also know what playing records gave music fans: time dedicated to listening to the music with deep absorption, printed lyrics to browse and memorable album covers. And there was even more, because the medium itself influenced the songwriting: the very designation of sides A and B of singles raised the question of the priority and order of the songs, which brought with it the genesis and application of the musical or ideological concept that served as the organising principle behind an entire album. A record is a tangible object that powerfully shapes the personal connection one has with both the composers and performers. Our aim is to revive the ritual of listening to records by together playing albums by Hungarian artists whose contribution to our country’s pop music history has been extraordinary in some way.

This program is held in Hungarian.