Kontroll Csoport

László Kistamás and Ágnes deák Bárdos with the Kontroll Csoport band in 1981. Photo by: Tamás Urbán/ fortepan.hu-125698

The Kontroll Group was a Hungarian underground band based in Budapest during the first half of the 1980s.

Founded by László Kistamás (vocals), Ágnes Bárdos Deák (vocals) and Csaba Hajnóczy (guitar, bass, piano, vocals), they were later joined by Árpád Hajnóczy and Norbert Iványi.

They made their first performance at a house party at András Wahorn’s place at the New Years' Eve of 1980. In March 1981, the frontman of the URH band, Péter Müller (who later became the husband of the band’s female singer, Ágnes Bárdos-Deák) joined this Proto-’Kontroll’ (The band ’Európai Kiadó’ was another successor of the URH). They created political songs against the regime (Annál jobb itt, minél rosszabb - Better Here When Worse, Rendőr - Policeman, etc.) and distributed their music through cassette recordings because they were not allowed to create official records. The band established a permanent rehearsal and performance site at the culture house of the Ikarus factory in Mátyásföld. The unique sound of the band was based on the sound of a saxophone, a bass guitar, and the synthesis of male and female voices. Although the Hungarian Record Label Company financed their demo in January 1983, they were not allowed to create their album - in addition to that, the band's members also started to working in other projects at the same time. Though the band broke up at the end of 1983, its members didn't stop playing this time in different groups - out of which Müller’s group, the Sziámi, became the most popular one.

Discography

• 1991 - 1991
• 1993 - Ős-Kontroll - Archív (A Kontroll Csoport 1981. Januárjában)
• 1993 - 1983
• 1997 - Élő Felvételek

References

• "Kontroll Csoport" - http://artpool.hu/muzik/magkontr.html