GÓBÉ band

The six-member formation was established in 2007, in Budapest, Hungary. The word “Góbé” means “a man with a twisted mind”. They have used authentic folk music in a daring and experimental way right from the beginning. The members completed their studies at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music so their range of tools includes classical, folk and popular music alike.

Over the last 17 years the band has travelled the whole Carpathian Basin and half of Europe. At the same time, they have appeared on almost every Hungarian popular music platform during their more than 1000 concerts. They have always been keen to explore new scenes other than the world of festivals and clubs, for example theatre, circus, dance theatre and film scores. Wherever they have their concerts, eras, styles and tastes encounter while crowds immerse themselves in dance.

Not only do folk music and contemporary music coexist but they also form the same culture and interact with each other – the Góbé has looked for these points of intersection in their four albums. Their last album “Élem” was released in February, 2022. The band won the National Fonogram Award twice, in 2022 with a traditional folk music and classical music album (Béla Bartók 44 violin duos and traditional sources) and in 2024 (live album ”Góbé 15” and two singles: Miért kell?; Rebeka, which is a 3 year old collaboration with a nordic violin player Oscar Beerten). The band is continuously working on new music materials, which are unique and intense as far as their character, instrumentation and unexpected technical solutions are concerned.

The members of the band have generated novel but ethnic sound images by means of challenging the technical limits of their acoustic instruments. Rock, blues, dubstep, reggae, metal, jazz, pop, hip hop and everything coming to their mind – actually, they have created a kind of folk pop music that is entertaining and contemporary but at the same time preserves its traditional nature. This is the undefinable, elaborate and smart Góbé style that is the characteristic attribute of the band.

A lot of people have met folk music through the special compositions of the Góbé while others as folk music fans have become more open to the modern music styles. The band continues to play their music that entices everybody to dance in smoky pubs, in forests and fields, at wedding receptions, in dance halls, in camps, on trains, in the streets or wherever they have the chance to make people experience a kind of flow. Their aim is to bring folk music closer to people and make them familiar with the music culture that lies behind their songs. They get inspiration from the diversity and community building power of folk art and they would like to give it back to their audience, too. The Góbé band continues to work “to make music accessible for everybody” as they follow the guidance of Zoltán Kodály.

Krakow [PL], Warsaw [PL], Lübeck [GER], Rize [TR], Trabzon [TR], Minsk [BEL], Madrid [ESP], Manchester [UK], Prague [CZ], St. Thurien [FR], Luxembourg [L], Louvain [BE], Riga [LV], Vilnius [LT], Tallinn Music Week 2022 [EE], Europe Day [EE], HiiuFolk n[EE), Viljandi Folk Music Festival [EE], Dombos fest [SRB], Malomfesztivál [SRB], Méra World Music [RO], Double Rise [RO]