Újbuda Jazz Festival - Subtones, Mandaan

The 19th Újbuda Jazz Festival this year awaits jazz lovers at Fonó. The aim of the festival is to showcase current and contemporary Hungarian representatives of the genre, from the classics to new experiments, including this year's outstanding novelties. With its unique atmosphere and diverse program, it offers an unforgettable musical experience for all visitors, exploring new horizons of jazz.

Subtones

With their song-centered compositions that cross genre boundaries, Subtones have become a favorite concert band on the Hungarian jazz-pop scene in just a few years. To connect more directly with their local audience, their Fonogram Award-winning album *Lángolj* features exclusively Hungarian-language songs, with lyrics written by the band members as well as Mátyás Szepesi and Péter Závada. Founded in 2019 by trumpet player Gábor Subicz, Subtones is one of Hungary's most exciting supergroups. The arrival of vocalists Vera Jónás and Flóra Kiss has steered the band towards a more vocal-oriented direction, so much so that they finished in second place in the 2022 edition of *A Dal*. "From the very beginning, when this lineup came together, it was clear to me that it's not driven by the desire to communicate. I want to make music with Subtones that I enjoy listening to. People often ask whether Subtones' music is jazz. To me, jazz is a mindset: you must leave as many possibilities open as possible and avoid playing out of habit. I love when I don't know what the others will play, and my favorite moments are when we kick the chair out from under us. Our music is made up of many different elements, and we play on a wide variety of stages, from TV studios to jazz clubs to roaring festivals. I feel that our music stands its ground everywhere. With Hungarian lyrics, we want to get closer to our audience. I feel that in a local context, English lyrics can feel like hiding, like wearing a mask. In our native language, the impact is much more immediate; the song flies directly into the listener's ear," says Subtones' bandleader and mastermind, Gábor Subicz.

Mandaan

Experimental ambient music in the spirit of contemporary and electronic soundscapes. The MANDAAN duo, built on contemporary trumpet and piano foundations with a rich mix of analog electronic sounds, has been present in the Ambient/Offbeat/FreeJazz world for years. Parallels meet at infinity, and this is also true for this formation. The listener is suddenly transported to another dimension, providing a euphoric experience that breaks them out of their everyday routine. The band's three full-length albums (*AMBAR/2016*, *CIRRUS/2017*), and their latest release in 2023, *Shigel*, showcase a refined, mostly slow-paced acoustic-electronic musical road trip, colored with mystical techno and gritty house elements.

Krisztián Muhari - trumpet
András Tóth - piano

Tickets: in advance 3000 HUF, at the day of the event 3500 HUF