Sandor Szabo & Balazs Major Featuring Laszlo Bagi ‎– Ritual Of A Spiritual Communion

Label: Leo Records ‎– LR 157
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: UK
Released: 1988
Genre: Jazz
Style: Contemporary Jazz, Free Improvisation

Another killer nestled deep within the sprawling back catalogue of prolific free-improv / jazz imprint Leo Records ran by tireless Russian ex-pat Leo Feigin.  Combining the talents of two of Hungary’s most respected artists working within the realms of improvisation and the avant-garde, guitar specialist Sandor Szabo and percussionist Ballads Major lock in for a mystical, and at times meditative, journey across the east / west axis - generating rich, spiritual overtones from Szabo’s 16-string Guitarvina together with the dexterous pitter-patter rhythms of Major’s tabla and the shimmering tambura drones underneath from Laszlo Bagi (confusingly not László Hortobágyi, who would feel very at home on this record.  It plants Hungary’s geographical location at the cross roads of major musical styles, owing as much to the classically trained Jazz styles of Western Europe as it does to the more improvisational and intuitive approach of the South Asian continent and the Middle-East.  It was a new one for me this week, doesn't seem to be much info online and it probably deserves more attention! (NM)

Tracklist
A1 Meditation 6:23
Transylvanian Moods 7:28
A2a Folk Song
A2b To The Feast Of Our Recovery 
A3 Awareness Of Life 4:40
B1.1 Suite: Part I. Suffered Truth 5:08
B1.2 Suite: Part II. Yellow Dawn 3:02
B2 Last Spring 5:03
B3 Flower On The Tomb Of A Hungarian Outlaw 3:37
B4 Faint Thought 3:27