Mixing electronic music with folk, singer/producer Lenkke_ represents a new wave of talented Hungarian female voices.
Lenkke_ has reached some commercial success already, but her name might still not be familiar to most Hungarian listeners. Considering how good she is at mixing traditional folk sounds with house and other electric genres, this is such a shame.
The music heavily relies on electronics. This not only gives some nostalgia to the songs from the nineties and early 2000s retro-futuristic sounds but also gives each song a structured rhythm that acts as the frame for the song. Some numbers lean more in the direction of down-tempo or house melodies, getting a contemporary sound, and contrasting the folk elements the traditional flute provides.
Different Eastern motives are also permanent on the album. Sometimes we hear Transylvanian flute melodies, such as in “Tilinkó techno” or “Gödör”. Especially these sounds are reminiscent of folk melodies, which create a mysterious, almost sacred atmosphere as if the songs were part of a ritual. Meanwhile songs like “Teló” have more Middle-Eastern influences.
The singing is soft and calm. It often operates as a contrast to the upbeat and intense music. The first song “Éjszaka” is a good example of that. It is the perfect representation of what the whole album is: a confident, yet calm, cold, almost distant journey.
The lyrics also go along this line, presenting a calm, clear, peaceful state of mind and inviting us to join to dance. The sounds and lyrics both create an atmosphere that makes the listener become a part of a ritual. Further analysis of the lyrics explains the affirmative nature of the songs. They almost act like self-therapy.
This is a motive that goes through the whole album. The songs hyperfocus on details, and describe feelings and atmospheres rather than actions or happenings. A recurring topic is making peace with things, a passive resignation, where the author lets the events go and accepts whatever happened or will happen.
“Szélnek eresztett” is a good example of this. The last part goes as follows: “Ez az, ami maradt belőlem, És már nem is lennék más, mint szélnek eresztett Halk suttogás”. That roughly translates to “This is what is left of me, I would not be anything else, other than a silent whisper, released to the wind.”
The album also includes songs in English, for example “Chill”. I find the Hungarian lyrics a bit more poetic, but the English texts also represent well the ongoing topics of the album.
Lenkke_ defines her own music as alterpop. This fits the new wave of Hungarian female voices, some of whom already wrote about here as well. I am really cheering for this generation of artists as they fit more into international music trends than some other local musicians, yet they take more inspiration from Hungarian musical traditions such as folk music than most of the Hungarian radio-friendly music.
I can only hope that Lenkke_ will keep having experiences that make her write calming, self-therapeutic music, and so that we can join her next journeys as well.
Stream “Törik a beton” LP on Spotify and YouTube.
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