László Hortobágyi

Hungarian composer born in 1950 in Budapest with a degree in ethnomusicology and expertise in imaginative sonic journeys.

A respected outsider in his country, László Hortobágyi pursued a career as fulfilling as it is peaceful, far from the obligations of the cultural industry. An explorer and scholar of music and sounds from all over the world, Hortobágyi first visited North India in 1967 in order to learn instruments such as the rudra-vina, sitar, surbahar and the tabla, but also to record music and delve into Indian philosophy.
In 1981 he founded the Gáyan Uttejak Society, an imaginary musical organisation which functioned at the same time as a studio and an archive of his discoveries in ethno-musicology.
A keen innovator in the technological arena Hortobágyi devised his own sound processing software and started using computers for music in 1988.
He frequently combines traditional and modern instruments with structures from past and present.

His uncompromising approach kept Hortobágyi in a marginal position that is undoubtedly disproportionate, for after decades of recording, Hortobágyi has established himself as one of the most vibrant cartographers of East and West musical mythologies.