After Crying
Megalázottak és megszomorítottak

THE REVIEW

After Crying are a combination of Hungarian musicians/multi-instrumentalists with distinctly classical features, jazz insights, chamber hints, evocative keyboards, and mostly delicate but always ready to vary in intensity rhythms. Amidst all this, choirs make an appearance, voices often with a theatrical character, sparkling rock moments, strings, and elegiac winds alternate with virtuosic phrases reminiscent of Crimson. The work consists of two suites (first and fourth track) plus three very short and delicate interludes featuring strings and choirs with nostalgic nuances ("A Kis Hos"), dark-hued melodies ("Nocturn"), and cello digressions swallowed by impetuous percussions that chisel the whole ("Vegul"). It begins with "A Gadaraj Megszallot" and immediately we are in territories contaminated by cello and piano counterpoints arranged in asynchronous times in a dark and melancholic union. The peremptory entrance of a low note (minute 4:29) shakes the limbs and scratches with its hidden and chilling beauty. It continues with two asymmetric melodic lines that drift apart as if to describe curved equations and then resolve one into the other (5:04), imploding into a powerful bass that underscores that sense of unease and poignant solemnity. Through a more meditative central phase, strings and piano sob until introducing singing now responsible for conducting the piece, upon which ivory keys settle seeming more caressed than struck. But it is only balance between the parts that remain suspended, without oxygen. The cello solutions become increasingly sharp in a rhythmic crescendo where clarinet counterpoints first and then dissonant piano droplets unhinge the initial theme until a brief pause (17:00). Then it is a sound foray with trumpet shards flashing hectically over the waves of a frenetic free piano alternating moments of "stop and go". The slow and inexorable mellotron grants us once more the chance to dream between clear punctuations of suspended notes in an atmosphere of palpable abandonment. In the end, it is like glimpsing the hidden light in the depths of blind eyes. The title track (fourth track) starts with a cello phrase that seems to contort until it strangles itself. It's always the strings that reign along with dashing piano incursions. The atmosphere becomes less scorching, and a work on drums with a tribal flavor introduces a brief almost whispered song (5:50) to cradle us in a circular void of form. Wind inserts fill the spaces between the piano chimes that surprise with their mighty beauty...and it's pure state harmony that accompanies us in a fluid delirium that grazes the soul. This little contemporary music jewel with an unpronounceable title stands as a work never an end in itself. The mix of styles acts as glue to individual insights, pushing and expanding the emotional tension... like a sort of liberating Karma... "after crying".