Today, the two-time Fonogram winner Thy Catafalque is releasing the second single from its quietly expansive thirteenth album. Both the darkest and heaviest song on XIII: Sárga erdő, “Tömbök” is centered around a natural phenomenon that’s reminiscent of daily life’s affect on the human mind.

“In English, ‘Tömbök’ means Masses”, explains Thy Catafalque visionary Tamás Kátai. “The lyrics are about the method of waste disposal by incineration and the process of how the waste is being divided into heat and slag or lifeless masses and how matter shifts its shape during different chemical and physical circumstances. You can apply the phenomenon to how the human mindset is affected by daily life, if you wish, though that’s just an idea”.

Watch the music video for “Tömbök” below:

“This is Thy Catafalque’s first video with the band playing a song”, Kátai continues. “On ‘Tömbök’, we have Gábor Veres on vocals and we also have a flute”.

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.

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

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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