A Hawk And A Hacksaw And The Hun Hangár Ensemble

Considering how much time I spend looking for new, interesting music, this blog has so far been a paltry reflection of my efforts. So, here is a recommendation for a very intriguing album by A Hawk and A Hacksaw and the Hun Hangar Ensemble.

A Hawk and A Hacksaw is the brainchild of former Neutral Milk Hotel drummer Jeremy Barnes. While I am very fond of Beiruit’s Gulag Orkestar, and enjoyed Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, I’ve not investigated too much of Barnes’ music, aside from this album, but this album truly amazed me.

Mostly an exploration of Eastern European folk and traditional sources, the music is lively, mysterious, and very playful. The well textured explorations of rhythm are beautifully layered with wonderful instruments and the entire album is a very well presented appreciation for Eastern European traditional music. Apparently, Barnes and Heather Trost (violin, glockenspiel and melodica), who both worked on Beiruit’s Gulag Orkestar, went to Budapest to study Eastern European traditional music and there recorded this album with the Hun Hangar Ensemble, a Hungarian group (Bela Agoston — Hungarian bagpipes, clarinet, alto saxophone, taragoto, viola; Zsolt Kurtosi — upright bass, accordion; Ferenc Kovacs — trumpet, violin; Balazs Unger — cimbalom). The Hun Hangar Ensemble’s mySpace site tells how Barnes and Trost discovered Fonó, Budapest’s finest music store and the de facto hub of today’s Magyar folk scene. The album is completely instrumental, and only features a couple of original compositions (one from Trost, and one from Barnes). The rest of the songs are arrangements of traditional folk tunes.

The album is not in any way a pop interpretation or Western-modern inspired study of Eastern traditional music. For that, please listen to Beiruit. This is a celebration of the traditional music by talented musicians. The album was released on the Leaf label, and is available on eMusic. If you are looking for something new, venture to eMusic and listen to some samples. Köszönöm a gyönyöru muzsikat (Thanks for the wonderful music).