Style: pop, electronica
Label:
Year: 2002
Home: Hungary
Members: Adrienn Zsedenyi ~ vocals
Viktor Rakonczai ~ keyboards/cabasa/b. vocals
Zoltan Keresztes, Gabor Kiss, Akos Letray ~ keyboards/b. vocals
Zoltan Sipeki, Krisztian Dajka ~ guitar
Gergo Kolta ~ bass
Edina Szirtes ~ violin/b. vocals
America is full of its sultry songstresses a la the Whitney Houstons & Vanessa Williams that have brought together ethnically flavored lush arrangements with dance beats, but it's easy to forget that it's not just American musicians who are inspired to create such music to croon love songs over. In 2002 28 year old drama/voice student Adrienn Zsedenyi released her debut recording & with a mix of her cute elfin looks & a soft voice, nearly symphonic lush keyboards & under-used electronic drums ... a mix that would sound totally at home at home on a Michael Bolton or George Benson album ... found herself with an unexpected Gold album & a new career. It also reached #7 on the pop music charts ... that is, the Hungarian music charts. I didn't mention that not just are foreigners inspired to follow American music trends but they also do so in their native tongue. Hungarian is not known to non-natives as a particularly attractive or expressive tongue such as Finnish, it's closest but quite far cousin, or French or Italian. But, from the lips of Zsedenyi it's like a whole new language rich in emotion. Musically Zseda ranges from dance electronica to classical/flamenco acoustic guitar to acoustic piano & violin ballads. It is a delightful range of music that never goes too far in one direction & shows that one doesn't need to pound out the dance beats to make good music but just memorable songs. The follow-up album Zseda-Vue would reach #1 on the charts & have a song become the theme to a Hungarian soap opera, a rare treat for any artist in any country. Zseda was no fluke success as Zsedenyi would go on to make four more albums. Zseda may seem like an odd inclusion on this blog of metal & rock but mentioning it serves a few purposes. For this blog Zsedenyi is representative of many similar musicians across the globe & mentioning her, one hopes, is a reminder that there is a world of great music out there & America is not the world. Further, there is a large percent of music listeners who rarely hear anything not sung in English, or maybe it's limited to Rammstein & traditional music such as African dance. In this context it becomes almost comical. Also, listening to a foreign language actually pulls one away from the lyrics & into the overall feeling of the music. How much music is churned out where once you remove the lyrics there is no feeling? This happens across the spectrum of musical genres, too. As for the soft nature of the music ... consider how many 80's rock bands have their most popular songs being their piano based power ballads? While, how many great hard rock musicians have taken jobs as session musicians for some of these musically light affairs? In this world of downloading where linear notes don't exist that fact is slowly getting lost. But, I can think of one Megadeth thrasher who has played forgotten in the background with pop crooners Kathy Troccoli & Donnie Osmond, for example ... Further, it's sometimes just nice to pack away the distortion for a minute & clear the ears of the norm.
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