Today, the two-time Fonogram winner Thy Catafalque is releasing the third single single from its quietly expansive thirteenth album, XIII: Sárga erdő. “Cseremisz” is a folk song that never existed, built from traditional Hungarian instruments, a choir and familiar faces.
“In English, ‘Cseremisz means Cheremis”, explains Thy Catafalque visionary Tamás Kátai. “They are a Finno-Ugric people living along the river Volga in Russia. They are an ethnic minority in Mari El Republic and because of the Finno-Urgic roots they are relatives to Hungarian people. We have learned about them in primary school, and they have always been a very distant and mystical people to me.
“This song is a fictitious folk song from that region that could be connected to recent historical events as well”, Kátai continues. “We have some traditional instruments like citera and koboz here with accordion and a male choir together with Bálint Bokodi on vocals.”
Watch the music video for “Cseremisz” below:
XIII: Sárga erdő comes out November 20, 2026 on Season of Mist.
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On XIII: Sárga erdő (Yellow Forest), Kátai wanders through an old, half-remembered time from a quietly expansive direction. Thy Catafalque’s new album features more than 30 collaborators, including a 20-person choir and, for the first time in the project’s history, a live drummer. However, the folk and classical elements that flooded 2024’s XII: A gyönyörű álmok ezután jönnek are handled here with a lighter touch. Just as a forest doesn't explain its colors, the album turns inside you, until you look up to discover that you’re somewhere new.
“Cseremisz” moves across the steppe at night. A steppe-gull soars over the plain. The narrator is the wolf in the reeds and the fox in the meadow. A heart beats “like hooves on the steppe”, while a black ship drifts down the Volga with its soldiers asleep aboard. Only the pounding of hooves is awake in the dark, a headlong flight that somehow feels beautiful. The song closes on a line it repeats and does not soften: “A halál mögöttem száll, utolér” (“Death flies behind me, and overtakes”).
“Cseremisz” features the Male Choir of Tiszaföldvár, Bálint Bokodi on vocals, Anikó Barna on citera and koboz, Dmitry Karev on accordion, Dario Cei on flute and Árpád Szenti on drums.
Sárga erdő, out this autumn via Season of Mist, was recorded across various locations and at Miracle Sound Szeged with Gábor Vári again handling engineering, mixing and mastering. It marks another first for the project: real drums, played rather than programmed, for the first time in Thy Catafalque's history. Thirty-four musicians and vocalists appear across the record, along with a twenty-voice male choir, but the folk and classical textures that flooded XII—sitar, kamancheh, zither, strings—are handled with a lighter touch here, chosen with more precision for the moments that call for them. There's no unifying story across the twelve tracks, only that same felt sense of wandering through old, half-remembered time. A forest doesn't explain its colours—it just keeps turning them, until you look up and you're standing somewhere new.
Line-up:
Tamás Kátai — Guitar, Bass, Keyboards & Vocals
Production Credits:
Recorded in various locations and Miracle Sound Szeged, Szeged, Hungary.
Produced by Tamás Kátai; Sound Engineer, Mixing & Mastering by Gábor Vári (Miracle Sound Szeged).
Cover Art:
Tamás Kátai
Photography:
© Laszlo Horvath — Album Artwork
© Orsolya Karancz — Tamás Photos
© Katalin Hunyás — Live Band Photos
Press-kit: https://presskit.season-of-mist.com/Thy_Catafalque/
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Guest Musicians:
Martina Veronika Horváth — Vocals (9, 12)
Ivett Dudás — Vocals (3, 10, 11)
Gábor Dudás — Vocals (2, 5, 11, 12)
Bálint Bokodi — Vocals (1, 8, 9)
Annamari Oláh — Vocals (6)
Lambert Lédeczy — Vocals (6)
Gergely Balla — Vocals (7)
Gábor Veres — Vocals (10)
Antal Cseh — Bass/Baritone Vocals (12)
The Male Choir of Tiszaföldvár — choir (8)
Anikó Für — Prose (5)
Árpád Szenti — Drums & Percussion
Krisztián Varga — Lead Guitar (1, 5, 6, 9, 10)
Zoltán Vigh — Lead Guitar (10)
Breno Machado — Lead Guitar (12)
Daniele Belli — Classical Guitar (12)
Anikó Barna — Citera & Koboz (8)
Chithrinie Nirupama — Sitar (4)
Peter Voronov — Violin (5)
Maria Grigoryeva — Violin (5)
Victor Morales — Violin & Piano (9)
Oleg Bezuglov — Violin (12)
Michaela Lilla Bos — Cello (9)
Francesco Pisciotta — String Arrangement (11)
Noam Dayan — Kamancheh (1)
Dmitry Karev — Accordion (8)
Dario Cei — Flute (8, 10)
Brandon Wilkins — Bassoon & Alto Flute (2)
Dan Rowland — Oboe d'Amore (7)
Kelly O'Donohue — Trumpet, Trombone & Flugelhorn (9, 11, 12)
Michele Fortunato — Trombone (12)
Patricio Böttcher — Alto Saxophone (3)
Efim Braylovskiy — Alto Saxophone (9)
Ibrahim Danbaba — Saxophone (11)
Follow Thy Catafalque
Website: https://www.thy-catafalque.hu/
Bandcamp: https://thycatafalque.bandcamp.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thycatafalque/
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Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/artist/thy-catafalque/372164196
Deezer: https://www.deezer.com/artist/1441022
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