After Crying

After many common bands, experiments and studies, in the autumn of 1986 a trio was formed with Gábor Egervári (flute), Csaba Vedres (piano) and the talented young cellist, Peter Pejtsik. They called it ‘After Crying’. Playing purely acoustic music had practical reasons: the lack of proper electrical equipment. They reached Portugal, England and Jerusalem as well, always providing a special, festive atmosphere to their audiences.

Tamás Görgényi (who had functioned as a kind of inner critic before), joined them immediately as soon as they had to write lyrics to the melodies of Vedres, and to shape the ideas and thoughts. Kristóf Fogolyán (flute) and Zsolt Maroevich (viola) have also joined the band, and they recieved the first contract for an album, the Overground Music (1990). A number of special concerts, festivals were also held during this period, sometimes involving literature readings and exhibitions, publishing their own poetry booklets and other material that represents the band members’ ideology.

Apart of chamber music orchestrations, rock remains an important source of After Crying, which they tried to demonstrate in front of the audience every time they could. Ferenc Torma appeared when it came to guitar playing. On his first performance he played the role of Robert Fripp when in 1991 After Crying first introduced the King Crimson band’s Islands album in Hungary. The concert was a huge success.

The second album Megalázottak és megszomorítottak (1992) brought a new line-up and a new sound. Fogolyán and Maroevich departed, but a new member, Balázs Winkler appeared, who was that time a trumpet student at the Liszt Music Academy, and has already participated in several in several projects of the band. Also during the work on the second album was when the band invited the first drummer, László Gacs. Gábor Egervári took over the role of sound engineer and the mixer started to become an instrument...

During this period, the band often played on the University Theatre Stage. Gergely Böszörményi, record store owner was also present at one of these concerts, who immediately fell in love with the music of After Crying and not much later released the Overground Music on CD and cassette. Thus began a long lasting collaboration and the Periferic Records label was born.

At the same time came the next major step of the band was playing the first King Crimson album in Budapest for more than 3,500 spectators. It was of course a huge success.

The audience slowly began to get used to the quick chameleon-like changes of the band, being a quartet and then a 15-member acoustinc chamber orchestra, sometimes with electric guitar and drum set, and sometimes all this happens at the same concert. Meanwhile Egervári again began to play the flute from behind the mixing desk, adding another special atmosphere to the concerts.

Besides the success, the lack of financial support, proper publicity and concert organization persisited creating permanent tensions. Personal and professional conflicts also deveoped and the founding member, Csaba Vedres announced his separation from the band. He said goodbye with one last album, this is how Föld és Ég (1994) was created. At that time, everyone seemed to be convinced that with his departure After Crying is over, yet, the exact thing happened what the band’s name refers to: after a painful, deep crisis the band has risen, and reached higher than ever before.

After overcoming the initial difficulties, the possibility a new album appeared. The concept came from Görgényi, who became more and more integrated with the band’s essencial work, selecting and editing the 3 new composers’ (Pejtsik, Winkler, Torma) pieces.

In 1996 the new album De Profundis came out, a seamless continuation of the After Crying-tradition but with completely new sounds, instruments and approaches both in the music and the lyrics. In November 1997 it was elected as the ‘CD of the month’ with the Italian music journal Cranium Music.

The progressive foreign media soon noticed all the new and the old albums – as per the work of the new publisher and distributor -, and After Crying albums have started their journey to conquer the world.

Meanwhile back home After Crying gained the largest success of the first progressive festival in Hungary, among such excellent performers as Peter Hammill (Van der Graf Generator), or the Ritual band.

In two years more than 200 minutes of new material was recorded, on the tenth anniversary a double album was issued with old and new, previously unreleased recordings, and a special live recording by the Hungarian Radio from 1991.

The new album, 6 was released at the end of 1997, bringing the band a great success and even more international recognition. The other important event of the year was an unforgettable concert in August at the ‘West Gate Festival’ in Budapest, where After Crying was joined by John Wetton (U.S., King Crimson, ASIA) to perform King Crimson’s  immortal composition, the Starless.

The five-member band decided to create a new permanent line-up, and they definitely needed a drummer and a keyboard player. Zsolt Madai, a young jazz drummer from the Lisz Academy was a big After Crying fan before. Zoltán Lengyel already participated on some piano recordings for 6, and being familiar with sythetisers he was happy to join the band.

After Crying was the highlight of the ProgLive festival in France (August, 1998) and subsequently at the Baja Prog in Mexico (March 1999). A new singer also joined the band, the perfect English and Spanish-speaking Gábor Légrádi.

The band gained overwhelming success wherever they went. The Highland magazine elected After Crying for the ‘Best Band of 1998’.

In 1998 a compilation album, the Almost Pure Instrumental was released to satisfy the strong urging of fans and publisher.

In 1999 and 2000 the band continued touring internationally and across Hungary with great success. In the poll of the Spanish magazine Progvisions After Crying came out as the ‘Best Progressive Band of the Nineties’ and De Profundis was chosen as the ‘Best Studio Album’.

The double live album Struggle for Life (2000) consists of footage of the band’s tour, nearly 130 minutes of new material and King Crimson’s  ‘Starless’ performed with John Wetton.

The publisher decided to release a single version of the concert album with 2 additional tracks that only appear in mp3 format on the multimedia content of the previous album, this is the Struggle for Life – Essential.

In 2000 they are the main attraction of the Baja Prog festival, and this time the band also played in Caracas, giving two concerts, one independent and one completed by members of the local symphony orchestra. In addition to their own pieces classical compositiones were also included in the repertoire. Subsequently, the AC toured in the U.S., France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland and Poland.

The highlight of the year 2000 and a milestone of the band’s entire career was a symphonic concert at the Liszt Academy Concert Hall in Budapest, leading the way to many highly successful future symphonic performances. The concert was such a big success, that despite having only ‘bootleg’ recordings with not quite perfect sound quality, the band has decided to issue a nearly sixty-minute selection of the material. This album, the ‘Bootleg Symphony’ was published in June 2001. Shortly after the release of the album, After Crying was invited to the leading progressive festival, the ‘NEARFest’ in the town of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. All tickets were sold out months before the festival, over a thousand enthusiastic spectators waited for the band as headliners, while no less than Tony Levin played before them with his California guitar trio. The celebrations continued in Mexico City, then at domestic concerts in Győr, Békéscsaba, Budapest, and finally in Royan, France as well.

The three-year series of remarkable success led into the celebration of the band’s fifteenth birthday with three sold out symphonic concerts in Budapest.

The new studio album Show (2003) has created a huge response from both national and international fans. A strong message with up-to-date sound, and a whole new world of music. After Crying has again shown its face from a new side – though still remaining the same.

In 2007 the Live concert DVD was released, it is a recording of a concert played on 23^rd December 2004, in Petőfi Hall, Budapest.

In the coming years the band has seen some more member changes. Zoltán Bátky became the new singer, bringing a whole new style of song interpretation to the stage. Zoltán Lengyel and Tamás Görgényi have both left, Csaba Erős joined as new keyboard player in 2011. Just recently Ferenc Torma, after 20 years of collaboration has also decided to depart from the band. The new, young virtuoso guitar player is András Horváth.

The 20^th and 25^th anniversaries were celebrated with symphonic concerts in the Palace of Arts, Budapest, with the participation of the Danubia Symphony Orchestra. A DVD of the latter performance is currently in the making, will be hopefully released by September 2012.

Creatura (2011) is the latest studio album, released for the band’s 25^th birthday. A great many international and hungarian progressive forums have praised it, some even saying this is the best album they have ever recorded.

For sure, 25 years are a long time, and the band that started as an acoustic trio has now become a leading member of the international music world as progressive, symphonic rock band, but rather, as they define themselves: a ‘creative workshop, making contemporary classical music’.

After Crying was awarded the ‘eMeRTon’ Prize of the Hungarian Radio in 2004.

After Crying discography