Photo by Tamás Lékó / Phenom’enon.
One of the most exciting things about music–any style–is the feeling, when you listen to something exceptional, that you must both take time with it alone and bring it to others. When you tell someone, “You have got to hear this!” you mean, “The music will not stay secret–and even if it is well known already, it will become even more so, right now.” Even if you’re just one of thousands of listeners, or hundreds of thousands, you have to do your part.
Many songs, many compositions have had this effect on me, but now it is the Hungarian band Platon Karataev (Gergő Balla, Sebestyén Czakó-Kuraly, Soma Bradák, and László Sallai). I was introduced to their music indirectly, through online recommendations of Marcell Bajnai. At first I was intrigued by their name (after the peasant in Tolstoy’s War and Peace whom Pierre Bezukhov comes to know in prison, and whose attitude toward life inspires his own transformation). Then, once I started listening, I kept returning, and something took hold. They have elements of The Smiths, Elliott Smith, Radiohead, and Grandaddy (especially The Sophtware Slump), but their style is their own, with unabashed intellect and feeling and gorgeous sound. Their new album, Atoms, released just last month, whirls both inward and outward. According to the band’s own description, “This album is about searching for our innermost selves, and also about questioning everything. The title, ‘Atoms’, refers to the idea that just like us, each song on this album is an individual shivering atom on its own.”
Most of their songs are in English (but this will change with their next album). Usually I prefer to hear Hungarian bands sing in Hungarian–not only for my own immersion in the language, but because English has become the language of streamlining and mass access. Many songwriters write in English in hopes of reaching a wider audience. While that’s understandable, it’s a loss to the Hungarian language (and sometimes to English too). But when Platon Karataev sings in English, it’s different, because they bring something unique to the language. Take, for instance, some of the lyrics from “Aphelion” (one of my favorites on Atoms):
I’m a paraphrase
Of silence as I’m floating over nameless days
With sanguine eyes
And blue lips I lie on God’s chest I’m paralyzedIf there’s such a thing
A spiral of nothing
Well, it pulls me down
Hearing this for the first time on the radio, you might think they’re singing “Ophelia” instead of “Aphelion.” That would work, too; the whole song could easily be sung to Ophelia by Hamlet. But it’s “Aphelion,” the outermost point in a planet’s orbit–that is, when it is farthest from the sun. The song takes you into private and cosmic lostness. (By the way, Earth’s 2020 aphelion was yesterday. )
Another of my favorites–and so brief that I have to play it over and over again–is “Ex Nihilo,” the opening song of Atoms. It starts out with the chorus, “Ex nihilo nihil fit,” which catches the ear because of the rhythm of the syllables and the way the end becomes the beginning. This is one of those songs that you would want both in a philosophy or physics class and on a desert road trip. But not for background music, ever.
I know why I love these songs and the others on Atoms. They have everything: sound, hooks, lyrics, character, guts–and together they form an album. But it’s harder for me to explain what’s great about “Elevator,” for instance.
On the surface, the lyrics sound ordinary:
You can call it anything, but that was love
When we were happy just because we shared the blanket.
You can call it what you want
You can call it anything, but that was love.
That was pure Love.
But if you listen carefully to the rhythm, the lilting of “You can call it,” you find that the genius is right there–taking simple words and setting them to time and tune in an absolutely memorable way. That, and the “elevator” part, which takes you by surprise, and the way the song progresses–the tight, surprising structure and the a cappella ending. All together, “Elevator” has what many songwriters long for: the feeling that every second belongs and must be heard and sung along to, again and again.
And that’s what songs are, isn’t it? These short musical stretches of time that you want to repeat and sing along with, because, like the character Platon Karataev in War and Peace, they bring something inside you to life.
You can find Platon Karataev’s albums and songs on their website, as well as on Bandcamp, Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, and elsewhere. Photo credit: Tamás Lékó; photo originally published in Phenom’enon. Months after posting this, I replaced the “Aphelion” and “Ex Nihilo” videos with the Live at Gólya versions, so that you can see and hear these incredible performances. Also, here’s a wonderful interview in English with Platon Karataev’s Gergő Balla.
This is the first post in a new series called Listen Up (different from the Song Series), in which I will write about things worth listening to. Next up: Cz.K. Sebő (Sebestyén Czakó-Kuraly of Platon Karataev). When I started this series, I didn’t realize this, but Cz.K. Sebő’s song “Hart,” one of my favorite songs in the world, has the words “listen up” in the lyrics. So let “Hart” be the origin in retrospect.
Update: I made a few changes to this piece after posting it, but kept it mostly intact, since these were my thoughts at the time. Their music grows and grows. I can’t wait for the new album, Partért kiáltó (Crying for the Coast).
Another update: here’s a classic 2017 video of them playing live and speaking about their music.
Take Away the Takeaway 
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