History:
The Ghymes band - consisting of Hungarians living in Slovakia - was founded at the College of Education in Nitra in 1984, by musicians with different preliminary musical experiences from classical through rock and Renaissance music. The years past have been like a "musical purgatory" for them. Folk elements have gradually clung together with their own individual musical ideas and GHYMES MUSIC was born.
The rhythm of the music has become tighter and sharper. In addition to traditional instruments (violin, viola, dulcimer, bagpipe, contrabass, lute, koboz, kalabash zither, Turkish pipe) the band has started using saxophones and drums - and without having even noticed it they have gotten included in the WORLD MUSIC category.
"GHYMES MUSIC" is rooted in Hungarian and Central-Eastern European folk traditions. Their Ars Poetica is the universality of music. Through their music they seek similarities and not differences in people. And these similarities have always been found whenever they appeared on stage - people of different cultures in different parts of the world have welcomed them warm-heartedly (Japan, Iraq, Jordan, Finland, USA, Canada). They believe that the energy and "magic" of live music is both the condition and cause of their success.
Ghymes composed music for several theatrical productions and companies: - Outdoor Theater of Komárom, Hungary, - Our Lives, 1995; National Theater of Budapest, Hungary,-St. Peter's Umbrella, 1996; Tanztheater Wuppertal /Pina Bausch/ 2000.
In the year of 2000 Ghymes had the opportunity to attend two remarkable events: The WORLD EXPO 2000 in Hanover (Day of Hungary) and the official celebrations of the New Millennium in Hungary (St, Stephen's day, Aug. 20th, 2000).
Smaragdváros (Emerald City) was produced by EMI Records and came out in Hungary in November 2000. In March 2001, it was #11 on the World Music Charts Europe.
The same year saw the coming out of the band's lyrics writer, Szarka Tamás's anthology of poems titled VÁVÁVÁ published by Szellemkép Publishing House.
The band was awarded the prizes "For Hungarian Art" and "Don Quiote", which was originated by Vámos Miklós, in 2001.
In 2002 the band was also awarded the Hungarian Radio and Television Co's eMeRTon Prize in the category of the Year's Hungarian band from beyond the frontier and the newly published album titled Üzenet (Message) coming out in 2001 again was Golden Giraffe prize-winner awarded by MAHASZ in the category of the best homeland jazz/word music.
The same year saw the albums titled Rege (Legend), a Smaragdváros (Emerald City) and A nagy mesealbum (The Big Fairy Tales) becoming platinum records, and Bennünk van a kutyavér (Dog's Blood's Inside Us), Tűzugrás (Firejump) becoming golden records. The album Bennünk van a kutyavér (Dog's Blood's Inside Us), which was originally designed for children, was declared teaching material by the Ministry Of Education in 1999.
The eighth album titled Héjavarázs (Hawkspell) was produced by EMI and came out in November 2002. The release titled Héjavarázs (Hawkspell) became a platinum record in three months, and it also won the MAHASZ Golden Giraffe Award in 2003 in the category "the jazz/world music album of the year".
In March 2003 Di-Color Studio came out with a book titled GHYMES about the band's 18-year long career.
"Ghymes is the only Hungarian band, which can authentically create and implement new ideas on a folk basis without it becoming Central-European Barnstorming."
László Matczkó, Hungarian Section, BBC London
"Let's give it 50 or a few times 50 minutes and let the music of Ghymes stir up or even choke and tenderly rock you at the same time. "Firejump" would purify our environmentally polluted souls."
Gömbölyös, KURÍR /The Courier Budapest, Hungary
"Ghymes is like a real pearl of the Hungarian musical culture, it is modern, humane, and of the Hungarian diaspora."
Other Side PC Magazine Budapest, Hungary
"There are many years of hard work behind Ghymes' new release Smaragdváros (Emerald City). World Music is improving, getting more popular and recognized. This album will always be looked at as a milestone, which manages to further promote the band's previously earned popularity inside and out of Hungary. Nourished on the roots, complying with the demands of modern times, with a poetry satisfying the sharp-eared, delightful voices make the performance perfect. The relatively new presence of a synthesizer is absolutely integrated in with the acoustic sound of the music. Whoever listens to this CD will understand the reasons why the label decided to promote the band, which is enjoying growing recognition and resounding success on foreign stages as well. The fact that at their last seasonal opening there were more than a hundred people left outside with no hope of getting in might be a good indicator of their popularity..."
BIOGRAPHY |
Az ifjúság sólyommadár (Youth as Falcon) 1988 LP
Ghýmes 1991 LP, CD, MC
Üzenet (Message) 1993 CD, MC
Bennünk van a kutyavér (Dog's Blood's Inside Us) 1995 MC, 1997 CD, MC
Tűzugrás (Firejump) 1996 CD, MC
Rege (Legend)1998 CD, MC
Smaragdváros (Emerald City) 2000 CD, MC
Üzenet (Message - latest release) 2001 CD
A nagy mesealbum (The Big Album Of Fairy Tales) 2001 CD, MC
Bakaballada (Soldier's Ballad - with Hobo) 2002 CD, MC
Héjavarázs (Hawkspell) 2002 CD, MC
A nagy mesealbum II. (The Big Album Of Fairy Tales II.) 2003 CD, MC
Ghymes koncert (Ghymes Concert) 2003 CD, MC
Ghymes koncert (Ghymes Concert) 2003 DVD, VHS
Gyula Szarka: Alku (Deal) 2004 CD, MC
Tamás Szarka: Anonymus 2004 CD, MC
éGHYMESe (Sky Tale) 2004 CD, MC
Csak a világ végire... (Only To The Edge Of The World...) 2005 CD, MC
Üvegtigris 2 (Glass Tiger 2.) 2006 CD, MC
Messzerepülő (Farflyer) 2006 CD, MC
Gyula Szarka: Bor és a lányka (Wine and the Girl) 2007 CD
Mendika 2007 CD
Tamás Szarka: Anonymus hangoskönyv I. (Audio Book: Anonymus) 2008 CD
Álombálom (My Dream Ball) 2008 CD
A 25 év - Aréna (The 25 years - Aréna) 2009 DVD
Gyula Szarka: Toldi 2009 CD
DISCOGRAPHY |
