Seven Samurai Suite

Seven Samurai Suite features the Geröly Virtual Trio with Geroly Tamas, Peter Ajtai and Gergo Kovats.  The album is based on the music in the movie The Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa. The film and the melodies of its composer Fumio Hayasaka inspired Geröly Tamas to create a space for free improvisation within his own compositional structure, with such prominent figures of Hungarian free music as Gergő Kováts and Péter Ajtai, with whom he has been performing as a trio for a long time.

The trio came to a milieu where less sound and simple melodic world create the right tension and concentration. We have explored the Bushido, a system of strict norms that influence the lifestyle of samurai: with its Confucian and Buddhist elements, emphasizing the importance of honor, simplicity, loyalty, and practicing martial arts. It’s not so difficult to find similarities between the above ethical guidelines and the unwritten rules of improvising musicians. The content here exists not in morality, but in the form of action, yet it is permeated by a spiritual atmosphere that eagerly joins the Kurosawa samurai.

The three musicians (who have no Far Eastern ancestors) play with dynamism, sound and imagination that blend Japan’s ancient sacred and secular culture with their own improvisational musical language. This is a great achievement in itself. The pre-conceived musical arcs are mosaically formed into a whole from the inner focus and discipline. This articulation is a tension-evoking and attention-grabbing device.

Geröly Virtual Trio
Geröly Tamás, Drums
Peter Ajtai, Double Bass
Gergo Kováts, Saxophone