The Moon And The Nightspirit - Holdrejtek

Deep-deep inside dense forests, where trees' branches create a whimsy tracery turning into impassible wood, full of trickling sinuous streams sharing their juice of infinite blossom with a dreamy soil, lives a spirit begotten by Mother-Nature itself. He likes to play with inhabitants of cozy glades during dark nights, dancing with frisky moths. Sometimes the spirit is sad and then the music of his soul is colored in dark-blue colors, sometimes he is cheerful and then everything around is wrapped in soft yellow tones, but sometimes he is insane and then the night itself is dressed in bloody red apparel. Only the chosen-ones are able to touch his boundless wisdom, drink his intoxicating herbal tincture that absorbed energy of all four natural elements. At that moment legs start to dance on their own, arms beat out a wild rhythm, body flows with unstoppable winds. It becomes clear while touching the new album of Hungarian musicians that the essence that you hold in your hands is the one that is ready to turn your head and carry off your imagination into immense world of marvelous wild nature.

I have been keeping an eye on The Moon And The Nightspirit band for a long time already, since the release of their first album through Portuguese Equilibrium Records back in 2005. I must confess that I started to admire them even more when I saw them live few years ago at WGT playing at the very special location of Pagan village. The duo hails from Hungary and binds components and influences of the local folklore into string driven folk music implementing an additional unique taste into it by singing in Hungarian language. After three successful albums with Equilibrium, the time had come to make some changes and during 2013 the band joined a very famous family of Prophecy Productions / Auerbach Tontrager. It goes without saying that the new album was not slow to arrive in late summer of 2014 enhancing all expectations of faithful audience.

Before I start concentrating on the actual content of "Holdrejtek", it is important to mention that Agnes and Mihaly don't exploit the legacy of Hungarian folk songs making some kind of remixes, stealing the credit of centuries of its development, but they skillfully craft its influence into the very depth of their own unique songs. All sorts of instruments are operated during the creative process; it is extremely hard to list all of them. In one of their interviews they even mentioned some really strange instrument morin khuur (a horse-head fiddle of Mongolian origin) that they had learned to play and used it in few compositions. But of course, violin has one of the most significant roles in the musical process, focusing a lot of attention on its piercing cry. An acoustic guitar together with darkbukas and percussions control the rhythm of the beautiful songs ensuring their certain vibration with the energy of natural mysticism. And above all, an amazing ethereal, I would even say elfish vocal of Agnes that can melt an iceberg of the most tempered heart.

"...Awake Mother Earth
to blossoming springtime
beneath the black soil
the embers of life rekindles..."
(Tavaszhozo)

Listening to this album is like diving into the depth of the green carpet called grass, like washing a face with clean morning dew, like catching an air flow between snow-white clouds. Even when all songs stick to the main theme, they don't become monotonous or dull, the pace is changed from track to track, keeping listener confined throughout 45 minutes of albums playtime. At a certain moment I start to feel like I am participating in some kind of primordial ritual meant to awaken all natural forces in one big celebration of Life, in one powerful spark of spiritual enlightenment.

At the time, when the whole world has gone insane in a constant chase after material valuables, when each of us addicted to artificial world of smart phones and "progressive" technologies, a breath of fresh air is desperately needed more than any time before. At that dark time, the music of The Moon And The Night Spirit becomes that force which brakes the shackles of our healthy spiritual existence, of our will to struggle for our right to carry our life free of slogans and constant brainwashing. The touch of something eternal, something existing without human interference caresses, brushes, touches, melts and pierces our hearts, rejuvenates our souls.

I remember the poem by W. H. Davies that perfectly describes the frustration of modern world and I would like to leave here it as a verdict which only proofs that without albums like "Heldrejtek" our life will become even more pointless.

"What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this is if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare."
Apr 18 2015