Márta Sebestyén - voice, flute, tamburine
Balázs Szokolay Dongó - bagpipe, flutes, saxophone
Mátyás Bólya - Moldavian lute, zither

"Creating a journey of songs that have traveled up hills and down mountains, traversed open grasslands and floated down rivers, huddled in tiny villages, crept past lonely rooms and wafted out onto misty churchyards, Márta Sebestyén has truly triumphed with her latest I Can See the Gates of Heaven… Hungarian Religious and Secular Songs. Carving out elegantly wrought musical signposts with her shapely vocals, Ms. Sebestyén lays down a path to the rich, ripe folk traditions of Hungary’s past. I Can See the Gates of Heaven… is astonishingly good.

With appearances on more than 100 recordings like the movie soundtrack The English Patent, Deep Forest’s Boheme, Peter Gabriel’s Big Blue Ball and Kismet, Ms. Sebestyén’s stellar career also includes performances throughout Europe, China, Japan and the United States, as well as, numerous awards such as the St. Martin Prize, Fellini Award, a Grammy Award and a Golden Giraffe. Joining Ms. Sebestyén on I Can See the Gates of Heaven… are musicians Mátyás Bolya (dudák, shepherd’s flutes, fujara, tárogató, saxophone and overtone singing), a member of the Moldavian music scene and a researcher at the Folk Music Archive of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Musicology and Balázs Szokolay Dongó (lute, and zithers), a former member of Békés Banda and a bagpipe teacher at the Óbunda Folk Music School. Together, they have turned their talents toward the revitalization of the Hungarian folk tradition.

Stringing pearls of melodies and folk songs into sparkling tracks, I Can See the Gates of Heaven… opens with the eerily ancient sounding “Vision,” incorporating the Moldavian ‘Csángó’ Hungarian tunes “Mountains and Valleys” and “Mary Lullabye.” Dipping into a font of overtone singing by Mr. Balázs and achingly lovely vocals by Ms. Sebestyén, “Heritage” pairs the Eastern sounds of a .......
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"Creating a journey of songs that have traveled up hills and down mountains, traversed open grasslands and floated down rivers, huddled in tiny villages, crept past lonely rooms and wafted out onto misty churchyards, Márta Sebestyén has truly triumphed with her latest I Can See the Gates of Heaven… Hungarian Religious and Secular Songs. Carving out elegantly wrought musical signposts with her shapely vocals, Ms. Sebestyén lays down a path to the rich, ripe folk traditions of Hungary’s past. I Can See the Gates of Heaven… is astonishingly good.

With appearances on more than 100 recordings like the movie soundtrack The English Patent, Deep Forest’s Boheme, Peter Gabriel’s Big Blue Ball and Kismet, Ms. Sebestyén’s stellar career also includes performances throughout Europe, China, Japan and the United States, as well as, numerous awards such as the St. Martin Prize, Fellini Award, a Grammy Award and a Golden Giraffe. Joining Ms. Sebestyén on I Can See the Gates of Heaven… are musicians Mátyás Bolya (dudák, shepherd’s flutes, fujara, tárogató, saxophone and overtone singing), a member of the Moldavian music scene and a researcher at the Folk Music Archive of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Musicology and Balázs Szokolay Dongó (lute, and zithers), a former member of Békés Banda and a bagpipe teacher at the Óbunda Folk Music School. Together, they have turned their talents toward the revitalization of the Hungarian folk tradition.

Stringing pearls of melodies and folk songs into sparkling tracks, I Can See the Gates of Heaven… opens with the eerily ancient sounding “Vision,” incorporating the Moldavian ‘Csángó’ Hungarian tunes “Mountains and Valleys” and “Mary Lullabye.” Dipping into a font of overtone singing by Mr. Balázs and achingly lovely vocals by Ms. Sebestyén, “Heritage” pairs the Eastern sounds of a .......
more