én aka Pal Tóth
[HU]
Én a.k.a. Pál Tóth is a Hungarian sound artist and radio producer living in Budapest. His weekly radio program, “No Wave”, features contemporary experimental and electro-acoustic music, radio art projects, and music from the Hungarian underground, as well as his own "ether concerts" and “rozart mixes” – collage compositions and live music improvised in real-time.
Pál Tóth was the program editor of the illegal Tilos Rádió (the illegal community Radio of Budapest – Forbidden Radio) between 1993 and 1994 and later became a member of the legal Tilos Rádió (Forbidden Radio) in 1995, when, with the liberalization of the Broadcasting Act, Tilos Rádió received its broadcasting license. A member of the international Radia Network, Tilos Rádió is actively engaged in cultural exchange.
Tóth selects samples from his extraordinary private music collection to compose pieces of music, and in doing so attempts to eliminate the unnecessary separation of composition and the preparation of music, the broadcast of music, and musical performance. His cathartic performances often operate at the limits of hearing.
In a recent work, “op. 120731 - hommage a király ernõ”, Pál Tóth recreates the universe of Ernő Király (1919–2007) using Király's original compositions, fragments, melodies and sounds to form a sound collage exploring the mystical world of the legendary forgotten Hungarian avant-garde composer. Like an archaeologist of media, Pál Tóth tries in his performance to recreate and enhance the “inner movements” of Ernő Király's music. His improvised approach is indebted to musique concrète and plunderphonics. “Pál Tóth confronts the listener with an evolving sense of time and duration that transcend questions of musical form to focus in the idea of shape, in the potentialities of a sound representation as stream of consciousness.”Pál Tóth has mixed music for contemporary dance production and builds sound installations. Since 1996 he has performed across Europe (from the Audio Art Festival in Krakow to Mysteries of the East in Paris). He is a member of electroacoustic groups izo-fr (with Zsolt Sőrés aka Ahad and Zsolt Kovács) and PAW Music (with Quentin Rollett and Ahad), and participates in English-Hungarian group project, The Sonic Catering Band.