Laszlo

PLEASE NOTE, THERE IS MORE THAN ONE ARTIST WITH THE NAME LASZLO! Here is info about 1: London based artist/ producer, Laszlo lays down the first release in ‘Mr Sunshine’ to launch the recently formed Lydian label. With a successful career composing music for TV programmes and adverts across the world, as well as being a multi instrumentalist (playing piano, guitar, mandolin, bass, drums, Vocals, Low Whistle, Dulcimer and percussion), Laszlo has previously worked on a variety of styles during his 10 years in the business, including world-crossover albums to more mainstream flavours. His influences are just as varied from Claude Debussy and Igor Stravinsky to Ryuichi Sakamoto or Frank Zappa, as well as modern experimentalists like Aphex Twin, Akufen, Venetian Snares and Matthew Herbert (who Laszlo became familiar with when he was in-house producer at the Dairy Studios, Brixton, in a studio next door to Herbert). Not afraid to experiment himself, it was after an injury in the summer of 2007 that left him with a broken arm and unable to play instruments for the next 6 months, that he started focusing on his sound by creating weird processed instruments using samples of real performances that he had previously sampled. Laszlo is contemporary and alternative, but still truly listenable. It is a fusion of influences from electronica, jazz and ambient music. These compositions bring together well thought out instrumentation and use of modal techniques, combining organic elements and electronic textures to outstanding effect. The intelligent structural genius of Laszlo’s music puts him straight up there with the musicians who influenced him and will undoubtedly leave the listener wanting more. Influenced by modal west African guitar styles and kora playing of artists such as Toumani Diabate, the title track ‘Mr Sunshine’ was composed and performed by Laszlo without the use of any external samples, and all tonal instrumentation created from scratch using live processed mandolin, piano, spanish guitar, rhodes etc. ‘Zeitgeist’, again composed and performed by Laszlo, also features the vocals of Clare Uchima aka Clara Belle (London based singer/songwriter). Based around noise fx and ambience generated by Native Instruments Reaktor, the percussion is made up of originally created sounds including household items like walls, pieces of wood, the side and back of the mandolin, the back of the guitar and beatboxing. While all the instruments are played live, Laszlo heavily processes them to create these new rhythms and patterns. ‘Anatolia’ was inspired by minimalist and impressionist artists such as Claude Debussy and Eric Satie along with more modern composers/ pianists such as Esbjorn Svensson and Bugge Wesseltoft, and features Niri Sadeh on the Egyptian Ney Flute. ‘Mr Sunshine’ also comes in two additional versions: Laszlo’s Ragga Waltz Mix shows his versatility as a producer and composer on this more dance orientated adaptation, while Todd Baker (one half of Music Box Project) provides a glitchier sound. Look out for an EP from Music Box Project on Lydian Label later in the year. With Laszlo now performing these compositions live with a six-piece band, this is definitely an artist to watch with great intrigue and excitement. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.