Hungarian Folk Band Platon Karataev Makes US Debut at CUA
Image Courtesy of Dean Robbins
By Dean Robbins
For Diana Senechal, the president of the Association of Literary Critics, Scholars & Writers (ALSCW), hosting the Hungarian folk band Platon Karataev for their first US gig is a dream come true. Senechal first heard the band in August of 2020. The band was then invited to participate in an academic session as part of a virtual ALSCW session in 2022. The show acted as opening ceremony for the 2024 conference of the ALSCW, hosted this year at CUA, which ran from October 17th to 20th.
The set saw the band’s two founding members Gergely Balla and Sebestyen Czako-Kuraly strip down their normally rockier tunes into acoustic versions reminiscent of 1960s folk. After the show, one attendee told Gergely that they sounded a lot like Simon & Garfunkel.
Senechal said, “There is a quality of thoughtfulness about their music.” In both their heavier recordings and this sparse performance, a thoughtful quality comes through.
When asked about their connections to literature, songwriter Balla said, “My aim is to write lyrics which could be, also maybe, poems.”
The band, named after a minor character in Tolstoy’s War and Peace, has changed dramatically since their inception in 2016.
Balla and Czako-Kuraly cited folk music in both Hungarian and English languages, including Bob Dylan and Jackson C. Frank, as well as Gregorian chant as major musical influences.
Nevertheless, Balla cautioned that, “It’s not like we try to write songs like Simon & Garfunkel or Bob Dylan. We just have some resonances in us, of course.”
Considering the “stripped-back” nature of the ALSCW set, Balla explained how their sound greatly differs in other venues. In other concerts and on streaming platforms like Spotify, Platon Karataev goes from Greenwich Village folk to cosmic arena-filling folk rock. This switch represents an evolution of the band itself from a duo to a quartet.
Czako-Kuraly said, “This is the naked form of these songs.”
Platon Karataev is currently anticipating the release of their fourth album, set for release early next year. Their music is available on major streaming platforms.
The ALSCW conference was organized in part by ALSCW executive director Dr. Ernest Suarez, who is also the chair of the CUA English department. His own work is focused on music, especially the Blues. The conference moves every year, usually to the home campus of the current president. The 2025 conference will be located at The Ohio State University, home of incoming president and Shakespeare scholar Dr. Hannibal Hamlin.
