The Skeleton Sounds of the Fianna

The Hungarian based traditional group, Fianna, are certainly no band of fierce combatants, but a fine bunch of musicians they undoubtedly are.
We discovered this band when their record company Periferic Records from Budapest sent in an album to the IMM offices in Dublin. Intrigued by the huge sound (the Shantalla of the East says the Ed) I went off in search of the warriors on their recent tour of the UK. Comprising musicians of Hungarian and English origin, with a firm foundation in Irish music, Fianna explore the music of several European traditions, occasionally interspressed with their own compositions. Members include renowed box player Luke Daniels, all round percussionist Ákos Kertész, Cornish piper/composer Alan Burton, Hungarian guitarist Kornél Varga and Rick Foot on bouble bass. After a number of hilarious mobile-phone calls and missed opportunities I finally met up with the leader of the merry band, János Lang, to talk business.
János Lang, founding member of Fianna, is something of a star on the traditional Hungarian music scene. His experiences have ranged from beginnings as a classical violinist to a more current pop recording with vocalist Katalin Lajtai, which has recently gone gold in Hungary. But now does a Hungarian violinist become interested in traditional Irish music, let alone learn to play to such a standard? „Well, I was about 6 when I went to Denmark with my dad who is also a folk fiddler. He was touring there and we met two famous Danish fiddlers, Ole Milner Soegaard and Hans Joergen Christensen, who are still my friends, almost like second dads. So they taught me some Scandinavian and Irish stuff. And that was it. When I came back I kept learning tunes from recordings and friends. I’ve been travelling a lot since the age of about 16, and have met a lot of Irish musicians, so it was much easier to develop influences and so on.”
Which influences exactly? The answer is definitive. „My goddess is Liz Carroll.” So how did the concept of Fianna come about? „I met Kornél when we were in high school, he could play about three chords on the guitar. I was constantly at him to learn to learn to play trad guitar. Obviously since then he’s improved a lot! Our first big influence was Solas. I saw them live in Dublin, and bought all the records. We copied John Doyle’s style of playing, all the time, practising and practising.” Little by little the line up came together and began to take shape. János spent considerable amount of time in the UK in 2000, and it was a member of the Fiddles on Fire tour (also comprising Eliza Carthy, Dezi Dinnelly, Chris Stout and Susanne Lundeng) that he met Alan Burton. Suitably impressed, János subsequently invited Alan to Hungary for a short tour, which led to a demo and eventually the release os album number one, „The Mad Skeleton”.
„The Mad Skeleton” is an interesting mixture. It features pleanty of thumping tunes, with János’s fiddle very much to the fore while piper Alan also figures prominently. The sound is strong and extremely tight, the choice of tunes adept. Afore mentioned Hungarian popstar Katalin Lajtai appears on vocals, perhaps the one major downfall on this album. Her pop style does not work on songs such as „The Lowlands of Holland” and „The Weaver”, her heavy accent sounding anything but convincing. Notably, the vast majority of tunes on „The Mad Skeleton” are traditional, something that will definitely change with the next instalment, scheduled for recording in July, and due for release in early autumn. According to János, „the new album will have more of our own tunes, mixed up with a touch of Balkan flavour. It will be a bit funkier, groovier, with unusual tunes. It will be well thought out. The first one was more for fun.” It may only have been fun, but heaven knows what this band can produce when they’re going at it seriously. Time will tell.
With so many traditions flowing conjointly, will the future sound of Fianna veer in one direction? Is the juxtaposition of several traditions likely to result in a stylistic collision, a cultural overload? A confident János thinks not. „We are so close as musicians. We take the Irish stuff as a base, mostly, and build up on top of it. If we write tunes, they’re not really Irish, not really Balkan, they’re flavoured… I have had the opportunity to get the right touch with Irish music. I come from a place where music life is so mixed up, and if you know the traditions well, you can use the music wisely. It’s not just like sticking things together, we know what we are doing and what we want to do with the music.”
In the sleeve notes to „The Mad Skeleton”, Fianna say that one aspect of musicianship takes precedence in their eyes, that is the „faithful though innovative interpretation of the melodies and style within the traditional music custom.” Not always a straightforward assignment, particularly where several cultures are at play and their very presence can result in styles seems that whichever the traditional music custom Fianna are attempting to represent, they make a damn fine stab at it.

Jennifer Byrne