Berlin-based, Hungarian keyboardist/producer Àbáse (AKA Szabolcs Bognár) has a series of albums under his belt where he was very effectively combining various world grooves by both picking up the best possible sounds and then combining them into a mix that essentially created something quite new and intriguing.
He originally released his Laroyê project back in 2021, it being possibly the one that gave him a breakthrough with follow-ups like Awakening from 2024, bringing him wider acclaim. Now, Bognár has decided to come up with a remaster of Laroyê in the hope that it will enhance the sound of the original and that the remaster will retain its freshness and all the musical qualities that were evident there.
It turns out he was on the right track there on both counts. Some remasters lose the lustre or hidden joys of the original albums, but Bognár’s production skills actually unveiled some nuances that were not directly obvious with the original.
At the same time, Laroyê itself started out as an audio diary, documenting Szabolcs’ travels and collaborations in Brazil through a collection of voice memos, fragmented beats, sketches and field recordings, and he was able to retain the authenticity of those original sketches by adding high-quality personal musical elements that still have retained its original impact.
