István Pápai on percussions,
Zoltán Farkas on drums,
Gergely Drapos on bass,
Ádám Mészáros on guitar,
Ambrus Tövisházi ..boards,
Erzsi Kiss & Veronika Harcsa on beautiful voices
Influences
Beck, Einstürzende Neubauten, David Bowie, Tom Waits, John Lurie, Depeche Mode, Victor Rice, Portishead, The White Stripes, Lata Mangeshkar, Johhny Cash, Kaláka, Sebõ Együttes, The Hives, DJ Palotai, Alice Russell, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Tigrics, Imogen Heap, Beth Orton, Four Tet, TM Juke, Venetian Snares, Kispál és a Borz, Iva Bittova, etc, etc, etc...
....
Erik Sumo Band - My Rocky Mountain Live @ Trafo, 2007
Erik Sumo Band Live @ Sziget Festival:
This Is Where It Began / Official video:
Erik Sumo
Erik Sumo, civic name Ambrus Tövisházi, is the surrealist in our band of outsiders, since his business is surreal amusement with a strong influence of musical genres from past decades. The Budapest based producer and singer/songwriter plays in different bands and releases under different pseudonyms. In his home country the most famous one is the weird eclectic pop band called “Amorf Ördögök”, in which he plays the Keyboard. The 7-man band does shows all around the country and has up to now released three albums. Besides he works as a DJ on Budapest’s legendary Tilos Radio, where his sets represent an even wider sound-spectrum as with the “Crate Soul Brothers”, a group he is not part of anymore. Furthermore Ambrus contributes to soundtracks for both, experimental cinema (at the moment he is composing the soundtrack for a christmas movie by Peter Gardos entitled “The Real Santa”) and TV-shows (the NBC used a remix of Amorf Ördögök’s “Tündérdomb” for their action series “Las Vegas”). Anyway, the internationally most famous of Ambrus’ pseudonyms is “Erik Sumo”, under which he released 12’’ on “Pulver Records”. His 2002 release “Just a Woman” was a laid back house-tune that entered many playlists and charts of people like Giles Peterson and of course the souls and bodies of the fans. A lot of time in which the fans surely got nervous passed since than, but finally the waiting is over and Erik Sumo returns to Pulver with a band and a blast.
His Band
The Erik Sumo Band is a seven-piece combo that consists of two female singers, a percussionist, a drummer, bass and guitar players, and Erik himself ..boards. The two ladies in the outfit are totally opposite characters – the chillingly charming, and soulful voice of Veronika Harcsa is accompanied by well known Hungarian chanteuse, Erzsi Kiss. Erzsi is famous for both her extraordinary way of singing in an unknown language, and also her outstanding stage performances, which have included many theatre and contemporary ballet plays. The bass player István Balahoczky is a well known musicians in the alternative music scene in Hungary; and dynamic drummer, Zsombor Dudás, and his accomplice on percussion, István Pápai, form the core of Erik’s other band, Amorf Ördögök.
His Album
Life as a “Crate Soul Brother” has seen Erik Sumo immersed in rare Eastern European jazz, library soundtracks, twisted funk, and cutting edge Baltic break beats for some time. It may come as some surprise then, that on his debut LP the Hungarian singer/songwriter has mixed up a heady concoction of Western inspired, acid tinged, future blues music that’ll challenge the listener as much as it’s guaranteed to entertain them. ‘This Is Where It Began’: a genre defying and surreal collection of songs that are sure to turn so-called ‘dance’ music on its head. An album inspired as much by Ennio Morricone and Clint Eastwood as it is by post-punk, Portishead and the cosmic sounds of seminal outfits like the RTB Big Band. Strings, harmonicas and infectious hand clapping conspire to mess with your mind, as traditional and future influences provide an unforgettable soundclash. ‘East meets west head on with the wild percussion and wordless vocals of ‘Sirens Of The Dead Sea’, and elsewhere, where The Real Moustache’ owes as much to facially hirsute travellers as it does tough beats for the dance floor. Sumo finds his voice on the title track, a cunning blend of lazy jazz drumming, electric guitars, and a certain cowboy’s heartfelt lament. The refrain then continues across borders to ‘Friday In France’. Here we’re met by a chanteuse of Francophile leanings, before, once again, we’re back on Sumo’s horse, trudging our way across ‘The Map Of The World’. An inspired, dubbed out version of ‘Summertime’ helps us on our way home for a well earned hot meal, only to find on the menu that ‘Babyfoot Is Off Today’! Tövishazi, with a little help from vocalists Juli Fabian and Erzsi Kiss, is due to confound, confuse and amaze with his debut LP. He reaches the summit of his ‘Rocky Mountain’ as has a hell of a lot of fun along the way…now ‘get on your horse, and drink your milk’….
text by Dom servini
Erik Sumo Band feat. Kiss Erzsi's Friend Space (Top 8)
hejjhó, köszönöm szépen és így utólag megdicsérnélek titeket az orfűi attrakciótok miatt hatalmas élmény volt, remélem mihamarabb látlak titeket juhúúúú =)
ez az élő csillag vagy fecske nagyonjó. ambrus nyomja a latinos zongoratémát? kik a fúvósok? álmom, a médiában dolgozni.. öö dehogy, bocsi.. egy erik sumo band koncertre eljutni.
thanks for the add, i love your music so much and now i read that you are coming to Fusion-Festival. I can't believe it, this is going to be great. The guy who will scream so load: that'll be me :-)
Thanks so much for the Add–and your friendship. We enjoyed your music very much. Thanks for sharing it with all of us. It's a pleasure having you among our friends!
We've just added two new blogs about Umano, plus four more new compositions, making ten on our space. We hope you and your friends visit us and enjoy our music, too.
We wake up every morning and play the music of the new MySpace friends who have arrived at our site during the night. It occurred to us that these friends (you are among them) are almost universally positive, whether they be novices or legends, and without regard to their station in life or the country they occupy.
Although it's not an original thought, it also occurred to us that we couldn’t hold a verbal conversation with most of these friends, but we have bridged that gap by expressing our art honestly with each other.
We all have been filling the world with our music and art, in the hope that our messages of love and human understanding will have an impact on the world at large.
What a gift and what an opportunity we have received from this technology!
Thom & Lorry Gambino New York, New York
PS from Thom: I played in the Lionel Hampton Orchestra in Budapest in April, 1971, as part of a U.S. State Department tour of Eastern Europe. George Wein was the promoter. It was a truly different time and mindset.
Hello there, amazing Erik Sumo! We are "Sinnamon" a very new and really amateur band from Athens ;) I hope you don't mind we have uploaded on myspace a live cover of the "map of the world"! In opposite case let us know! Keep up the great job!
