TÖRZS

The Hungarian post-rockers who record in caves and find sanctuary in the rehearsal room

Törzs debuted in 2015, but the Hungarian instumentalists’ story extends far further back than that. Guitarist Soma Balázs and bassist Dániel Nyitray have been friends since primary school and jammed in a host of projects since then. “Throughout our childhood and our adulthood, we’ve been playing together,” Nyitray summarises.

The pair’s band before Törzs featured a vocalist. That lineup dissolved and, when they decided to start afresh, Balázs and drummer Zsombor Lehoczky initially stepped up to the microphone.

“For our last two albums, we quit singing,” says Balázs. “The main reason was, actually, we’re not very good singers.”

“We had a concert at a friend’s house,” Nyitray adds. “It was a normal apartment in Budapest city centre – no sound system, nothing – so that was our first instrumental concert. After that, all three of us, we were like, ‘OK, this is a lot better!’”

As a result, on 2019 album ‘Tükor’ and its brand-new follow-up ‘Menedék’, Törzs offer sweeping instrumental songs comparable to Godspeed You! Black Emperor and We Lost The Sea. Where it’s obviously difficult for the band’s music to carry conventional ‘themes’ without lyrics, Balázs explains that the title of their new release means ‘refuge’ in Hungarian. Its tracks are tributes to the sense of sanctuary that they feel when they rehearse and record together.

The guitarist elaborates: “That’s what we think of when we go to the rehearsal room and play together. We feel something like a refuge, coming back after a hard day at work or something like that.”

Though the band recorded ‘Menedék’ in a conventional studio setting, produced by György Ligeti of native indie favourites We Are Rockstars in 2023, they tracked ‘Tükor’ somewhere much more unorthodox: a cave network 500m underground.

“We wanted to record somewhere special, not in a commercial way,” Balázs remembers. “We found that, in Hungary, we have a beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s called Aggteleki Cseppkőbarlang and it actually worked quite well with the reverb and the walls, because it was so huge!”

Preparations for the subterranean session took 12 months, with the band needing to get permits from the government and Aggteleki National Park. “Apart from having a plug to get your electricity from, there was zero infrastructure there,” explains Nyitray. “We recorded the album live there, so we had to bring the sound system and recording system, and also cameras and computers.”

Törzs don’t have anything as unusual as that on the horizon, but the band hope to tour more frequently following ‘Menedék’s release. They’ll start with a run of European shows alongside fellow post-rockers Oh Hiroshima in April.

“Our goal is to go abroad more,” says Balázs. “Hungary is not a big scene for this kind of music, so that’s my plan.”

“I still feel like there’s more people out there who might like our music,” adds Nyitray. “Being able to play for them will definitely be a great feeling. It’s always great to meet people who are interested.”

– Matt Mills

PROG FILE

LINE-UP: Soma Balázs (guitars), Dániel Nyitray (bass), Zsombor Lehoczky (studio drums), Tamás Szijártó (live drums)

SOUNDS LIKE: Instrumental post-rock threaded with expansive, tragic melodies

CURRENT RELEASE: ‘Menedék’ is out on May 16 via Pelagic

WEBSITE: www.torzs.bandcamp.com