These two companion albums have just been released by Stereo Periferic in Hungary to give a taster of what the label is all about. This year sees their tenth anniversary and so far they have released 120 albums. In many ways this is the perfect way to find out about some of the bands involved, and to be able to get a feeling for the sheer diversity of the music that they are releasing. There is snobbery within some quarters that Europe doesn’t include countries such as Hungary or Poland when it comes to releasing good music, but there are some great bands out there that deserve much closer investigation. Take for example the opening number on ‘Symphonic-Prog-Rock’ which is by a band called Fugato who have yet to release their album (due soon). This is a modern piece of classical music led by piano, with an orchestra adding extra colours. It is a forceful moving piece of music that is just glorious. Contrast that to the flute-led second track by Musical Witchcraft or the much more complex and deeper prog of Folk Iván. There is also a track by Mindflowers who I have raved over earlier, so if that sounded intriguing, but not enough to get the album yet, why not try this to get a feel? There are ten different bands on here, showing the different styles covered within the label and I have only heard a few of them before so this is a good way of finding out more about Stereo Periferic.

This album is actually more diverse than the first! There is music that if one heard it, one would guess it as coming from a country like Hungary, whereas on others it is only the lack of English words that gives it away as not coming from the UK. Hétrét contains some wonderful female vocals and gentle acoustic guitar while Houlduvar drives on with piano and violin in perfect harmony and the bassist determined not to be left behind. The label itself describes some of the music as ‘folk’, other as ‘Hungarian folk’ and yet more as ‘world’, but for me the most surprising number was the last one, which is by Református Énekek I and is a Hungarian version of “Bless My Soul The King Of Heaven” which I have sung many times in church myself. Of course the title is in Hungarian so I wasn’t prepared for it, but it sounds as if the congregation and organist are well in tune with each other.

Periferic may not be a well-known label in the UK, and is the only Hungarian label that I have dealings with, but they deserve your support and produce some fine music.

Kev Rowland