Mandoki Soulmates presented the recording of the large-scale outdoor concert in Budapest last August in an exclusive live streaming format.
The concert was recorded with 16 cameras, and a top-class concert film was made from the recordings. "It is a great pleasure and honor for us that the European and American press and the public celebrated our new album, Utopia for Realists - Hungarian Pictures, in such a sensational way. Due to the ongoing pandemic, we are unable to tour either in America or Europe, but the concert in Budapest last August in front of the Basilica was touching. We present this concert film to thank our audience all over the world - from Los Angeles to Shanghai - for their support," said Leslie Mandoki to Origo.
This concert was a fountain pen love letter to our fans.
In the interview, he emphasized that it was a great honor for him to come to his hometown with his fellow American and English musicians, the Soulmates, and to present their completely new rock-suite album written in the footsteps of Béla Bartók and Hungarian folk music. It was especially good to rehearse in Budapest at the old Bem club.
"I grew up here. I grew up here on the music of Syrius, Rákfogó and Mini. My American and English fellow musicians also felt at the rehearsals that we were in front of something very special here. Of course, apart from the members of Soulmates, all professionals thought it was crazy that we were not going on stage with our world hits on the square in front of the Basilica, but were presenting a completely new album. But we felt we owed it to our audience. A musician should think about tomorrow, not yesterday. We believed in our audience, we believed in the Hungarian spirit. It wasn't sweat that we wiped off our faces after the concert, it was tears. We were all touched by the love we received from the Hungarian audience." People stood and applauded several times during the concert. Since then, we have been talking to the members of the band a lot since the concert in Budapest was so touching. This was our only concert last year because it was impossible to perform elsewhere due to the epidemic," said Leslie Mandoki.
Leslie Mandoki put it this way: music should speak for humanity, for attention, for families, friends, nations and Europe - for a positive future.
“Let's get out of the echo chamber that social media creates and hold hands. If someone disagrees with us on certain things, that person is not our enemy, just a person who sees the world differently. Music has a great connecting power. We also said on the stage in Budapest: Béla Bartók and Hungarian folk music gave the artistic answer to the challenges of the world," emphasized Leslie Mandoki to Origo.
Source and full article: origo.hu
Featured image: Attila Kleb
