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The main protagonist on the CD is clearly the cimbalom and Miklos Lukacs: he wrote the composed parts of the tracks we hear, yet his two colleagues are indispensable to him, and not only in the improvised sections. The trio's name, Cimbiosis, perfectly describes the ideal state of mutual interplay within which the three musicians collaborate: sometimes the bass and drums seem to act as a respirator for the cimbalom, while this two-man respirator draws its energy from the cimbalom itself; elsewhere it's the cimbalom that provides the bass or the drum the foundation on which to build a solo. Miklos Lukacs has here two fellow musicians, or rather fellow creators: Gyorgy Orban, a bassist who once aimed to be a classical guitarist but finally found his home in jazz, and the amazing courageous drummer István Baló, who is committed to free music (he used to play with Gyorgy Szabados). In other words, both of them come from the jazz world in the broadest sense. But the music they have created sits uneasily under the "jazz" label, and this is one of the charms of Miklos Lukacs's musical world: he doesn't give the listener the facile satisfaction of genre labels. It has no genre; it has style, idiom, and atmosphere. Of course, within this style (idiom, atmosphere) can be found something from jazz too, for sure, but behind the musical ideas there is folk music, in its authentic form, in its art form after its Bartokish transfiguration, in the ornamentation there is Gypsy music, in places the volcanic energy of rock music erupts, and in the logic of the compositions, the complex harmonies, and the relentlessly serious attitude to the music is the entire classical tradition, from Bach through Debussy to Kurtag. In this sense, it is a decidedly twenty-first century CD, for I think the era of genres is over: we can refer to them, but they no longer have any meaning. Miklos Lukacs is guided through this genre-free no-man's land by the sure hand of good taste. (Gergely Fazekas)

Track Listing

Press Quotes

Expressing the cornucopia of sounds that can be coaxed from the traditional Hungarian cimbalom or trapezoid struck zither has long been the aim of Miklós Lukács. Here his eight compositions and the sympathetic textural embellishments provided by bassist György Orbán and drummer István Baló put these attributes in their finest form. Lukács, whose background includes notated and folkloric sessions as well as discs with improvisers like Mihály Dresch is comfortable in situations like this, while Orbán who has recorded with Viktor Tóth and Baló, who has worked with Mihály Borbély are more Jazz inflected. Because of Lukács' canny adaptations of the chordophone's two sets of grouped strings there are points at which it appears as if he's playing a vibraphone and others times during which the resemblance is to piano strategies. Besides both instruments' timbres the cimbalom can create bell tree shakes, wooden idiophone echoes, guitar frails, concert harp glissandi or electronic oscillations in the same track. Dramatically some potent compositions like 'Metamorphosis' and 'The Long Life of Ephemera' are taken robustly, pitched allegro and vivace, providing full-frontal display of each member's prowess. On 'Metamorphosis for instance, upfront cimbalom plucks and chording are as pianistic as they are percussive, with constant tremolo plops from Orbán maintaining the rhythmic pace. A rare example of focused drum ruffs and rebounds cementing the foot-tapping beat elaborated by a walking bass line, the latter tune is proudly extroverted. Somehow the interaction manages to suggest both a Jazz piano trio and a string-pulsating harp continuum without losing solemnly-paced individualism. Other tracks are more restrained and balladic however, with fragile gestures from all echoing chromatically, creating variations through melodic counterpoint. Complex, 'Memento' is the most diverse. Including pounding drum ruffs, ratcheting flanges from Lukács, Christmas bell-like shakes, and accented instrumental vamps doesn't preclude a gloss of Magyar sweetness from permeating the performance. Music from the Solitude of Timeless Minutes not only affirms the cimbalom's identity as a source for profound improvisations, but it's also a top-flight Jazz trio session by any standard.

     —Ken Waxman, jazzword.com (CAN)

Miklos Lukacs plays the cimbalom, Gyorgy Orban is on bass and Istvan Balo hits the drums onthis two part opus of 8 pieces. Hints of an Orson Welles move are delivered on the eerie 'Refraxcted Silence In A Heartbeat'... A head on collision?

     —George Harris, jazzweekly.com (USA)