Szabolcs Szőke is a part of the music life of Venice from 30 years ago. His renasaince figure appers in Gudecca, in the places of Canal Grande or in the San Angelo. One night he facninates 3000 people in a festival of the town and in the other day he captures a couple of passersby in small retired corner of squares. The way as others paints with brush is the same as he paints the shines of Venice with the ancient violin of angels, the gadulka. Through his music and stories we can be a part of his private relations with Venice.

“The gadulka is a solitude instrument. Our record tells mostly about this solitude instrument. We are inseparable of each other. My instrument originates from a Bulgarian town, called Nesebar. This is a headland. Partly Europe, partly Asia. The man, I have bought it from, thirthy years ago, is Hriszto Ivanov, Bulgarian gadulka player. I dedicate this record for him and for my wife, Margit, with whom I was there on honeymoon. But, of course, for everyone, who is listening this music – really a musical diary – with open heart and ears. It raises a monument to the memory of a Bulgarian gadulka musician, of our young days, of my wandering in the world, Budapest – Nesebar – Paris – Caracas – Florence – Venice – Bovegno di Magno – imaginary eastern towns, the sounds of solitude and being together. These are the sound of the beggar and of the rich, in the litterally and the figurally sense of the word as well.”
Szabolcs Szőke

Szabolcs Szőke is one of the leading figures on the Hungarian world music scene. Some of his former bands include household names such as Kolinda, Makám, Stúdió K, Tin-Tin, Hólyagcirkusz, Ektar and Rubái Trio. Szőke is the type of artistic leader who mingles music and theatre, folk and jazz, composition and improvisation, the dynamic and the static to create a row of lasting workshop productions, all of which are meant to uphold the small circles of performance arts. His work is known in Europe as well, his Ektar even has an Italian line-up with the magical play of the wonderful trumpet player David Boato.

Szabolcs Szőke – Gadulka & Sarangi