Following the news that Light in the Attic was reissuing the Gabor Szabo Jazz Raga album, we hooked with the Hungarian label, Moiras, who have a whole batch of super limited LPs and CDs that have never been available in the United States, until now!
Obviously the first big one is a Gabor Szabo’s Jazzpodium 74 – Live in Budapest, which marked the first time the native Hungarian jazz guitarist visited his homeland since 1956. Szabo’s performance was for a Hungarian television program, the first such show ever devoted to jazz music broadcast on Hungarian television, on September 12, 1974, and that performance was broadcast in Hungary the following year. The eight songs performed for that program have been turned into a deluxe, super limited CD (550 copies worldwide) and a forthcoming deluxe hand-numbered gatefold LP release (330 copies), which is not yet available.
Buy Jazzpodium ’74 HERE
Also available is a deluxe LP from Hungarian rock band Scampolo, whose Under The Rainbow album gather previously unreleased material from 1968-1970. The band covers the likes of British/American soul and R&B artists such as Richie Haven and John Mayall with their own unique Hungarian rock flavor, and include a few of their own original studio and live recordings that generally shine brightest in the progressive rock spectrum. This deluxe, hand-numbered gatefold LP is limited to 330 copies.
Buy Under The Rainbow HERE
Some highlights from the Hungarian prog rock scene between 1971 and 1974 are fully encapsulated on the deluxe hand-number gatefold LP of Hungaria’s It Would Be Cool If It Was Cool. This is a collection of unreleased songs the band did before they became Beatles revivalists. This album is also limited to 330 copies, and comes in a deluxe, hand-numbered gatefold packaging.
Buy It Would Be Cool If It Was Cool HERE
Also available is the reissue of Kettõspont by the moderately successful Transylvanian folk duo of Erika Józsa and Horváth Károly, who were greatly influenced by the Hungarian pop and folk scenes in the early 70s. Due to Communist political restrictions in Romania, only a few thousand copies of this record were made, making the record extremely scarce. The reissue of this is just as rare (330 copies worldwide), but comes presented in a deluxe hand-numbered gate-fold sleeve.
Buy Kettõspont HERE
Lastly, is “the most unusual hard rock production of all time,” by Romanian rock band Metropol. Égig érhetne az ének (The Song Could Reach The Sky) is their debut LP from 1978, and remained the only one sung in Hungarian. Because it was never distributed in Hungary when it was released, it only reached the ethnic Hungarian minority living in Romania, yet it is considered to be the very best Metropol has ever done.
Buy Égig érhetne az ének (The Song Could Reach The Sky) HERE
