Towards South by The Rezervátum Orchestra comprises some of the best and brightest of the Hungarian jazz scene. The band offers an unconventional power jazz experience that draws on its freestyle music origins. This album is a Stereo DXD recording that is available exclusively on DSD and DXD. Not available on SACD.

It took a long process of waiting and reflection before the music you hear here could assert itself. Nowadays, when an unimaginable amount of music is being recorded, it’s an appropriate question to ask how to participate in this dumping. But rather than dwelling on this, here are a few more personal sentences to give you some orientation to the pieces:

The first piece is one of my earliest and fondest memories, centered on my great-grandfather, or rather, sitting. My great-grandfather was a self-taught watchmaker in a small village in Vojvodina, and the house they lived in was full of various clocks and clock faces. I have fond memories of this house and the yard next to it. Perhaps the most cherished was the evening when, entering the kitchen, I saw him sitting at the table having dinner. The table was in the middle of the small kitchen, surrounded by old kitchen furniture, with countless clocks playing a symphony of their own. It was perhaps the first moment of magic in my life.

The second piece is based on a composition by Béla Bartók, which can be found in the third booklet of Mikrokozmos. This piano piece, arranged for orchestra, is for me a clear demonstration of Bartók’s genius. This is followed by an original composition, Blumen, inspired by a painting by Anselm Kiefer.

And Avala, the concert’s finale, was born from a more complex story. There was a period in my life, spanning several years, when I used to travel regularly on the Budapest – Belgrade railway line. The name of the train that ran here was Avala. These journeys south were always tinged with a strange melancholy. More than once, I imagined Miklós Radnóti making the same journey for the last time in his life, perhaps seeing the same scenery as I did. One of my most shocking experiences was the realisation that Bori Radnóti’s notes were written in an Avala printed notebook. As a closing encore to our concert, we played John Coltrane’s The Drum Thing, which we read as a prayer for all those who are alone or feel alone in the current world situation.

Rezervátum Orchestra
Szilveszter Miklós – Drums
Péter Ajtai – Contrabass, Percussion
Ádám Mészáros – Guitar, Percussion
Dániel Cseke – Saxophones, Percussion