After his contemporary and jazz projects of
recent years, Miklós Lukács, the ambassador
of the cimbalom in Hungary and worldwide, has
returned to pure beauty on his new solo album
Timeless, arranging well-known songs by the
Lennon-McCartney duo, Sting, and Morricone
for his instrument. After his achievements in
contemporary music and jazz, it was time
to turn his attention to the popular side of
the repertoire, where he is once again a pioneer
– no other album has been released ever to
showcase the diversity and potential of the solo
cimbalom by performing well-known songs.
After his contemporary and jazz projects of recent
years, Miklós Lukács, the ambassador of the
cimbalom in Hungary and worldwide, has returned
to pure beauty on his new solo album Timeless,
arranging well-known songs by John Lennon and Paul
McCartney, Sting, Ennio Morricone, Leonard Bernstein,
Keith Jarrett, Harold Arlen, and Rezso Seress, to
express the timelessness of music within an acoustic
and tonal framework. However, making arrangements
does not mean that he tries to reach a wider audience
by playing popular songs on the cimbalom. Instead,
he joins the original composers as a co-creator,
which makes him able to perform well-known songs
with the same value as the contemporary canon, in
keeping with his own personality and highlighting
the versatility of his instrument. The musical
history of the past creeps again and again into his
arrangements as a sweet spice, be it in the garb of
classical music, jazz, or traditional musical cultures.
Nevertheless, he focuses primarily on the present
and not on musical precursors, so the singable
melodies engage the listener’s emotional memory
and at the same time give us the pleasure of a first
hearing. The arrangements are complemented by
an original composition, Aura – Hommage à Péter
Eötvös, in which Miklós Lukács creates a new quality
by fusing accessible melodicism and experience in
contemporary music.
Miklós Lukács is a true ambassador of his instrument:
he has brought the cimbalom as a solo instrument to
the forefront of contemporary music and jazz both
at home and abroad, and has developed a number
of techniques beyond the traditional playing style to
achieve unique sounds. Almost thirty years ago, he
was asked by Péter Eötvös to play the cimbalom solo
on the forthcoming BMC Records album of Atlantis,
and has been a key member of the BMC artistic
community ever since. Composers like Eötvös and
Béla Szakcsi Lakatos have written pieces for him, and
he has played with musicians and orchestras such
as Archie Shepp, Bill Frisell, Chris Potter, Uri Caine,
Frank London, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He
has appeared on more than a dozen BMC Records
albums, first as a sideman for international groups,
and then stepping forward to realize his own projects,
for example with his Cimbiosis Trio, and now on
the solo album Timeless. After his achievements in
contemporary music and jazz, it was time to turn his
attention to the popular side of the repertoire, where
he is once again a pioneer: no other album has been
released ever to showcase the diversity and potential
of the solo cimbalom by performing well-known songs.