hu László Melis: "Black and White" reconsiles Tradition with Evolution

Hungarian Composer László Melis has joined forces with Pianist Zoltán Lengyel for an album of Piano magic. Aptly titled “Black & White”, the record consists of a Suite for Solo Piano comprising 15 short tracks, which can be regarded as dealing with the issue of old vs new and with preserving what has proven its worth, while respecting the necessity to destroy conventions to make way for something different. “We can’t live without Johann Sebastian, and we might even be proud of this, but Johann Sebastian doesn’t solve our problems”, László Vidovszky writes in his strident liner notes, which namedrop both Perotinus and Paris Hilton, “The anti-traditionalist movements of the twentieth century have now floundered into the trap of their own tradition, and it’s understandable if they try to retreat. Performing artists (perhaps out of mere laziness?) saw back in the sixties that the future of music is in its own past, and now composers too have subscribed (but why indeed?) to this patent idiocy. All is interference, arrangement, quotation technique, comment, reminiscence, stylistic traits, synthesis, re-interpretation, and so forth.” In this turmoil, László Melis’ concentrated path in the middle between the extremes, according to Vidovszky, must be seen as a real chance to arrive at fruitful results.

The story of László Melis, although still obscure by international standards, is certainly vitally important to the development of contemporary culture in his native Hungary. After his first, succesful project, “180 contemporary ensemble”, disbanded at the beginning of the 1990s, he turned towards composing. Thanks to his involvement in soundtracks and cinema, theatre and radio plays, his music is well-known to the ears of his compatriots, whether they would recognise his name on the street or not.

While some track titles on “Black and White”, out on BMC Records, already hint at his interest in 20th century phenomena (“Blues”, “Rock n Roll”), others openly quote the past. The idea seems to be to replace the somewhat forced revolutionary sentiments of the Avantgarde with an element of surprise. Even László Vidovszky seems pleased with this approach: “They broaden the scope of interpretation of conventions, and because of this we bear their hackneyed turns of phrase with patience. At the same time they give us a place to see the “new” as similar to the old”, he concludes, “It’s not a bad feeling.”

Homepage: BMC Records
By Tobias Fischer, published 2008-08-07

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