Samurai Drive and the Crazy 88
The duo of singer-guitarist Soma Nóvé, known from Middlemist Red and Mordai, and Dániel Riederauer, who plays electronics and bass, debuted in 2019 as Samurai Drive. The band's debut album, released in 2020, evoked the atmosphere of midnight cinema: electronic music, blues and new wave sounds met film noir aesthetics. After the equally excellent Hunt EP in 2021, they returned at the end of 2023 with a song that evoked both Isaac Hayes and Morphine, and at Müpa Budapest their music will finally be heard in a way that has only ever been in the minds of the composers.
Schedule
The group's music is, in their own words, "recommended for those on lonely roads in the late hours", and it's this combination of crooner bar backed vibes, smoky club jazz and dark electronica that gives the band their uniqueness. They've returned from their creative hiatus with Remedy, a song for "young and old, the heartbroken and carefree alike", recorded in November 2023, and this time they're playing their songs - new tracks alongside previously released and familiar ones - as they've always imagined them. The two-piece line-up will be supported by a number of contributing musicians, allowing for a more colourful and vibrant sound than usual. "Performing at Müpa gives us the opportunity to experiment with new things and new concepts, to let our imagination run wild." The Crazy 88 team of the title is a notorious troupe from the Kill Bill universe, this time swapping swords for instruments to help draw out the traits and motifs of Eastern music culture present in the music and melodies of Samurai Drive.
Müpa Budapest
Müpa Budapest is one of Hungary's best-known cultural brands and one of the most modern cultural institutions, bringing together different artistic disciplines in a unique way: it hosts classical, contemporary, light, jazz and world music, opera, new circus, dance, literature and film.