Transsylvanians

Band information:
Transsylvanians are a phenomena of today's roots-music scene. Based in Berlin, the four musicians create with their Hungarian Speed-Folk a mixture of rap, rock, Bartok, ska, punk and gypsy-techno. Their live appearances invariably turn into ecstatic dance orgies but Trannsylvanians can also seduce the audience with the ballads and love songs in their repertoire. The songs tell of their homeland: The earth and the stars, war and peace, love and jealousy and, above all, the lust for life that characterizes their live shows. Through their constant touring they have become one of Germany's favourite live acts on the worldmusic scene.
The new front-woman is Nagy Isabel. Her double-bass playing and voice meltdown into a deceptively gentle mood only to suddenly erupt with breath-taking energy. Violinist András Tiborcz sweeps the audience away with his energy-loaded, ferocious playing. Add ambidextrous guitarist Hendrik Maass and powerhouse drummer Thornas Leisner and you've got one hot goulash heavy on the paprika. This line-up evokes the stories of generations of Hungarian life as told in the traditional songs. The combination of their different musical backgrounds provides the creative tension of the band and produces exciting and vivid new music.
The name "Transsylvanians" is often with the Dracula myth and when that conjures up visions of a mysterious underworld where, in the night, bats go hunting and dark forces awake uncontrollable passions which drive people to madness, then this is not in the least inappropriate. Transsylvania, the musical source of the band, is a strip of land that belonged to Hungary until the First World War and is now part of Romania. Many people from different cultures live there: Hungarians, Romanians, Siebenbürgersachsens and Gypsies.
With many concerts in England, Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Austria, Switzerland and Germany, these musicians - from Hungary and Germany - show how music can connect people of different countries and generations.
What we are about:
All of the band have grown up and come from different parts of the world, but we met up in Berlin. Our music is based on traditional songs from Transsylvania combined with modern and classical inluences from Bartók to techno and punk rock. The songs are about some of the crazy, mad, sad, and passionate things that happen to you in life. Things like the mega confusion you feel when you fall in love like the song Magic mushroom. Or about making mistakes with your life and trying to get back on the right road like in Kerek utca (me crooked road). Or they are just about having a great party time like in Opadi. They're a mixture of wild enthusiasm for life like Eljen! or melancholic reflection like Kis kece lanyom (The young bride in white). Or they're about funny things like how a wife tries to hide the signs of her lover from her drunken, confused old husband in Mi baj angyatom?
We chose the name "Transsylvanians" not only because that is the source of where our songs come from, but also because it reflects the wandering homelessness that is part of modern life. Transsylvania doesn't really exist as a fixed state, it's made up of people from a lot of different countries. That seemed to fit really well with the lives of the members of the band, and the different musical influences they bring to it. Maybe if we all came from Budapest we wouldn't be able to play this type of music in the way we do. The creative tension in the band comes out of combining different musical influences and bringing them together to make a new wild and temperamental sound.
A lot of people when they hear the name ,The Transsylvanians' associate it with Count Dracula, and we think that's funny. It conjures up this dark, sexy, underground world, where things change at night, where bats come flying out to hunt and uncontrollable passions get released and drive people into a frenzy. That's the kind of things we like to do with our music.