Ewiva! / Maria Mazzotta

This time around, the connection will be the all-engrossing passion that marks the singing of both Evelin Tóth and Maria Mazzotta alike. Love, you could call it... This is what flowed irresistibly from Tóth's first solo album, Csókoljon meg… - which she recorded in collaboration with Hamid Drake, Mihály Dresch, László Fassang and Zoltán Lantos - and glowed in her cover of the Tamás Cseh and Géza Bereményi classic Eszembe jutottál, and the list could go on... But now it's time to turn our a...ttention to Ewiva!, the trio Evelin founded in 2018 in partnership with two internationally respected musicians: violinist Frankie Látó and percussionist Kornél Mogyoró. Although their name means "hurrah!", this blazing music, which burns with the melancholy of fado and Hungarian folk sounds just as much as it does with the fire of flamenco and Sephardic songs, is a long way away from requiring additional encouragement.
Maria Mazzotta first gained recognition with the world-famous Salento pizzica revival ensemble Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino, but she has been active as a solo artist for five years now. Her career has been marked by adventurous collaborations with such illustrious figures as Bobby McFerrin, Ibrahim Maalouf, Ballake Sissoko, Justin Adams, Goran Bregović, Roy Paci and Redi Hasa. But none of her projects have been as groundbreaking as last year's Amoreamaro, the album she made last year together with Madagascan accordionist Bruno Galeone. They recorded Italian love songs: yearning ones, hopeless ones, possessive ones and carefree ones, all with a passion so hot it takes the breath away, and which can only be described as catharsis.