As the leader of the indie band Fran Palermo, Henri Gonzo has been one of the key figures on the Hungarian pop scene for more than a decade. After the band's highly successful third album in 2020, however, Gonzo needed a change, and eventually started another group. With Henri Gonzo és a Papírsárkányok's classically inclined attitude and poetic lyrics written in the Hungarian language - particularly significant after the English-language songs of Fran Palermo - Gonzo is looking establish a new sound. In addition to material from the band's debut LP A Cementkert (The Cement Garden), released in May of 2023, the concert will also feature new songs and special guest musicians.
In contrast to Fran Palermo's energetic world of rock, dance and festival anthems, Henri Gonzo és a Papírsárkányok (Henri Gonzo and the Kites) invite us to a more tranquil, introspective musical world that features classical instrumentation - not to mention musicians with classical music training - and poetic Hungarian language lyrics. The core of the band began to coalesce at the start of 2021, with a one-month intimate and more relaxed songwriting process that saw Gonzo locked up in a small apartment in the Buda Castle District with two fellow musicians, keyboard player Zazie Farkas and bass guitarist Issiaga Camara. As the songs slowly but surely started to find their form, so the band itself began to take shape. In addition to Farkas, who studied at the Liszt Academy, they were also joined by two other classically trained musicians (a cellist and a percussionist), Gábor Árvay from Fran Palermo, and another guitarist, Máté Németh. Henri's lyrics draw inspiration from numerous literary influences, from György Petri to Arthur Rimbaud and the poetry of Ancient Greece, while the band's sound is an inspired blend of pop and classical music.