Each member of JÜ (guitarist Adam Meszaros, bassist Ernö Hock and drummer Andras Halmos) is an accomplished player on the Budapest scene. Beside dozens of Hungarian groups, the members have played with such internationally acclaimed musicians as John Zorn, Eugene Chadbourne, Charles Gayle, Chris Potter, William Parker, Hamid Drake, Pamelia Kurstin and Mikolaj Trzaska. As developing musicians in Budapest, they came under the sway of such American renegades as John Zorn (particularly his Naked City and Moonchild bands) and Last Exit, the noise quartet of Bill Laswell, Sonny Sharrock, Peter Brotzman and Ronald Shannon Jackson.
Worlds collide when JÜ joins Oslo-based saxophonist Kjetil Møster for a subversive meeting of the minds on their first RareNoise release, JÜ Meets Møster. A powerful manifesto for ecstatic, exploratory, envelope-pushing music, mixed by Bill Laswell and mastered by Michael Fossenkemper, JÜ Meets Møster bridges the gap between free jazz and hellacious, distortion-laced, guitar-driven hardcore rock.
Their second RareNoise release, Summa, once again bridges free jazz, raw hardcore rock and spacious world and ambient music. Alternately calm and crushing, Summa stands as another powerful manifesto against complacency.
Recorded at Supersize Studio in Budapest during the Spring of 2021, and due to be released September 2021, III is JÜ‘s third RareNoise release. III reflects reflects a core drive to explore traditions and ideas from far-flung corners of the world, returning with a vital and pulse-quickening sound accented by countless disparate influences yet singularly possessing its own boldly uncategorisable voice.
On III that sound is marked by the now-familiar whirlwind of blistering rock, dizzying prog, ferocious free jazz, mesmerizing ambient textures and alluring Eastern European rhythms. This time out, a strong influence from Southeast Asia bleeds its own way into the mix, particularly the gamelan music of Indonesia and the ecstatic devotional songs of India. The mysticism and spiritual intensity of this music melds with the band’s immersive potency to conjure an overwhelming sound of compelling complexity and breathtaking vigor.
