Video Premiere: János Másik – Running

Music

Foam On A Wave reissue an LP from one of Hungary’s most prolific musician and film composers.

Hungarian musician János Másik remains one of the country’s most notable composers and multi-instrumentalists. Operating between the late 70s and early noughties, he charted several LPs, most of which are collaborative works with fellow Hungarian composers and musicians. It’s one of his few solo long players, Trance Balance, that’s getting its time to shine once more, thanks to London-based label Foam On A Wave.

Released in 1989, a historic year that saw the fall of the Berlin Wall and Round Table Talks in Hungary to establish a new multi-party democracy, the LP is inevitably fuelled by the shifting political landscape at the time.

While there’s nods to bands like 23 Skidoo, Talking Heads and The Pop Group across the release’s 11 tracks, in its entirety the music is singular and surreal. Taking cues from art rock, folk, jazz, post-punk and avant-garde, Trance Balance sits somewhere between reality and dreamland, awash with ghostly synthesisers, tribalistic rhythms, propulsive percussion and freeform instrumentation.

Today we premiere the video for ‘Running’, which is arguably the most straight-forward and catchy track on the release. Harmonic vocals chime behind Másik’s commanding vocals which call to mind that of David Byrne, while frantic synth melodies and a meandering guitar riff keep the song driving forward.