The Galloping Wonderstag
VÁGTÁZÓ CSODASZARVAS/abbr. VCsSz
(The Galloping Wonder Stag)
Ex Oriente lux – light comes from the East. The magic spirit of ancient Eurasia is conjured. The Galloping Wonder Stag revitalizes the shaman power of ancient horse riding people living in the millennia of the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age from China to the CarpathianBasin. It is an experience of the celebrations of Hun Magi from the Steppes, a primordial God-feeling, in which the spell-binding knowledge of the One and Indivisible Universe rejoins us with our genetic memories. As it is written about their music: “Certainly there is no other music that could more effectively communicate to our compatriots, or even to the whole world, the powerful force of our national past and heritage — which survives and flourishes to the present day, as the music of the Vágtázó Csodaszarvas (cca. Wonder Stag in Full Gallop) so eloquently testifies. If you hear it once, you will find it unforgettable — and will seek out the experience again”.
Actually, the music of the Galloping Wonder Stag arises in the same way as the ancient ethnic music: from the deepest impulses of the human spirit seeking expression of life’s profound, enrapturing, unfolding beauty. It is a natural music, born of the cosmic creative power of Nature. It is a folk music from the center of the Universe! It is energetic, vital, joyful, monumental and intimate, simultaneously.
As the great Hungarian composer Bela Bartok wrote: “The real ethnic music is a natural phenomenon free from any cultural influence, the result of the formative activity of the unconsciously acting natural force. Such creations develop with the same organic freedom as the other living organisms of Nature: the flowers, animals etc…. Such music expresses the instinctive manifestation of a peasant’s musical perception.”
VÁGTÁZÓ CSODASZARVAS emerged in 2005 subsequent to five years of creative activity defining and refining its concept and musical direction. Attila Grandpierre, founder of the ensemble, left his former ethno-shaman music group Vágtázó Halottkémek (abbr. VHK, cca. Galloping Coroners) in the year 2000, after 26 years of vital activity. VHK had acquired its reputation as the best shaman-punk band ever. In this new group, Attila invited some of the best Hungarian folk virtuosos, together with some previously unknown but technically excellent and spiritually-endowed musicians. The band now consists of eleven members, playing on tambura, cister (ancient Hungarian lute, lyre), the Hungarian bagpipe, tarogato (Hungarian double reed instrument), the Csango drums (ancient Hungarian shaman-drums), violin, and double bass — all together fusing to create what is by turns a ferocious and enrapturing sound.
VÁGTÁZÓ CSODASZARVAS is not merely a musical experience, but a vision of an unlimited will to live our lives to the fullest capacity. The ritual, shamanic dance presented by Attila Grandpierre is a source of magic that enraptures the whole band and hypnotizes the audience, who thereby experience the extraordinary world where the magical music still lives, as it has ever lived from time immemorial.
The first CD of VÁGTÁZÓ CSODASZARVAS — entitled Pure Spring — appeared in 2006, published by FONÓ Records. Its pride and glory is to recall Béla Bartók’s concept of the real folk music — and to make it resonate with the minds, sensibilities, and spirits of people who seek vital connections with our living world and with our human past. It reached the top at the list of the best records of 2006 of Hungarian musical journals, and has been dedicated to the best CDs of 2006 in the categories of the best debut albums, the best productions and the best CD covers. In 2008, it became a Golden Recording, indicating its popularity. The second CD of the Wonder Stag, entitled as “Infinite Asia!” is released in 2008 and reached immediately the top charts, http://www.mahasz.hu/m/?menu=slagerlistak&menu2=archivum. In the press, this CD was regarded as the best world music album of the year, as well as one of the best folk albums forever.
Six mp3 pieces of music of The Galloping Wonder Stag can be listened at www.myspace.com/vcssz and can be freely downloaded from www.grandpierre.hu/ujdonsagok0.htm. You can find videos about the new DVD, CD and performances at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD4b-cWiO_0New DVD: Emberélet/Manlife
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcZo4BOg5wo Performance, Mámoros éji vágtázás/Extatic Nocturnal Galopping, Monostorapáti, Művészetek Völgye
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_hC-TTJKk8 Intro/Koncert-kezdés, 2006. június 21, Petőfi Csarnok
Contact address:
Attila Grandpierre, PhD
candidate of physical sciences, astrophysicist, writer
E-mail: grandp@iif.hu
Internet sites: www.myspace.com/vcssz,
http://www.grandpierre.hu/ujdonsagok0.htm,
Tel: +36-70-509-7404
Fax: +36-27-373-074