On Nefelejcs, Hungarian keyboardist and producer Szabolcs Bognár brings Àbáse’s globe-spanning vocabulary closer to home. Recorded largely in Berlin after seven years of living abroad, the album draws on Hungarian folk music, avant-garde composition, and ethno-jazz, folding them into the hip-hop rhythms and restless improvisation that have defined his work. Its title translates as “forget-me-not,” the favorite flower of Bognár’s late mother, but also carries an instruction: do not forget. That double meaning gives the 19-track set its shape. Rather than treating tradition as a collection of samples to be updated, Bognár allows older melodies and contemporary grooves to speak in the same register. Folk singer Hanga Kacsó and cimbalom virtuoso Jenő Lisztes lend “Fekete Szem / Black Eye” a direct connection to Hungarian musical practice, while saxophonist Otis Sandsjö, bassist Petter Eldh, and drummer Silvan Strauss bring the elasticity of a working jazz ensemble. Bognár’s Rhodes, synthesizers, and beatmaking tie these approaches together without smoothing away their differences. “Gondolatok / Budapest Juke” reaches toward footwork, suggesting that club culture can be another way of carrying musical history forward. There is room for another generation of voices, too, with rapper Beton.Hofi and singer Csinszka locating folklore within present-day Hungarian popular music. The extended “Gyászba Borult Isten Csillagvára” serves as a gravitational center, while recurring reprises of “Nefelejcs” and “Fekete Szem” turn remembrance into a structural principle. By the time “Búsulni Megtanultam” closes the record, Nefelejcs feels less like a return to origins than an expansion of what home can mean.
