About Nord
In my years of high school I was a founding member of a rock band called Tempest (1991 – 1993) with a few classmates (Peter Attila Zsolt guitar, vocals, drums Dancs Zsolt, Nagy Zsolt Csongor – bass guitar, vocals, István Attila Sztakics keyboards).
After dismantling the band, together with some friends I founded another rock band named Semaphore (1994-2001). With this band I gave many concerts singing every weekend in a club before a large audience, but we performed in several cities such as Brasov, Miercurea Ciuc, Tg. Secuiesc, Tg. Mures, Gheorgheni, Cluj Napoca etc.
In 2000 we held a 3 week tournament in Sweden, and we played in cities such as Stockholm, Uppsala, Gothenburg, Jönköping, etc.
In 1996 I recorded in Bucharest with the band Semaphore and we published an album of our own entitled Thoughts (Gondolatok), in Hungarian, on the label Dancs Market Records of St. George.
As an instrumentalist on keyboards, I was always interested in synthesizers and electronic music. In 1994 I made the first recording of electronic music by myself, with a Casio HT-3000, CT-460, a Roland Juno – 60 synthesizers, a Soviet Lell echo and SHARP cassette recorder which allowed me to record a new track during copying a previously recorded track. So I recorded the album under the pseudonym Roland N: Transcendental Dream, a philosophical concept album, treating the subject of afterlife. The album was released on Music Fix label in St. George – 1994.
First live appearance on stage under the pseudonym Roland I’ve had at a festival of rock music in St. George, where I played a few songs on a synthesizer, helped by a guitarist (acoustic guitar and bass guitar) and a violinist.
Since then I am always preoccupied with fitting hardware synthesizers and midi sequencers in a “home studio” that allows me to record multiple tracks of electronic music.
In 2005 appeared in Cluj Napoca on the label of Promusicprod my second solo album titled Blue Symphony, under the pseudonym NORD containing pieces of symphonic music and symphonic rock, played on synthesizers and electric guitar (Makkai Kalman guitar) .
http://soundcloud.com/nord-sztakics-istvan/05-soft-blue-rain
Between 2006 and 2014 I was a member of the rock band Mercedes Band from St. George.
As Nord, in the period 2005 – 2007 I composed a symphonic rock concert for orchestra and rock band, titled Visions, of course, all instruments are recorded using synthesizers.
In 2010 I finished a new self-produced album Nord: Trilogy / Electronic Oratorio, which contains 6 songs composed in electro-symphonic style -. The album contains two cycles, cycle Trilogy and cycle Electronic Oratorio, where the last piece includes a text written in Hungarian by my friend Teddy Tinca, and recited by another friend, Gabor Erdély. Guitar tracks were recorded by former band mate of Semaphore, Makkai Kalman.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03Y63T0KWBc
In 2010 I achieved another material, album titled Avant Garden Party – atonal experimental music, electro-symphonic sound waves and it is a transposition into music of an imaginary trip into space. The album contains a four-movement work Movement I – IV and a bonus track called “Music for Korg Monotron & synthesizers.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCY7TJpB3-s
In 2010 I met with Alba Ecstasy (Bucharest) http://www.albaecstasy.ro/ and we have a very close and fruitful musical collaboration. After two days of improvisations in my studio, we recorded two songs that can be heard on Youtube, and decided to do live concerts of electronic music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiL68t_fYDg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiGLym968jk
From 2010 I wrote and published a series of specialized articles – reviews on Teremin and on other electronic musical instruments published on Soundblog.ro site.
http://www.soundblog.ro/1096/thereminul/
On 26. March 2011 Alba Ecstasy & Nord held at the Cultural Center Arcus Covasna in Szentkereszty Castle a live electronic music concert titled Music From Outer Space.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEWfaCSc5xc
We played compositions of Alba Ecstasy, mainly from the album Echoes of silence and Nord, from the album Symphony of the silent notes with an arsenal of analog and digital synthesizers, arpegiators and sequencers. The entire material of the concert was recorded live to make an album with the same title.
Later the leader of the Cultural Center Arcus asked us to make a live outdoor concert of electronic music. For this event we made a new material called Alba Ecstasy & Nord: SOLSTITIVM. We played The Planets by Alba Ecstasy and Solstitivm by Nord.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkvhEepPAYM
The concert took place on June 24, 2011 in the week of the summer solstice. Because of a storm, the concert was held in the Concert Hall of Castle Szentkereszty.
This concert was also recorded in order to follow a live album Alba Ecstasy & Nord: Solsititvm which will include live interpretation of music composed by Alba Ecstasy and Nord for this event.
In 2011 I recorded a studio version of songs composed by me for these two concerts namely: – Symphony of the silent notes and Solstitivm.
On November 24, 2011 was the first live concert held in Bucharest by Nord. At this concert I was helped by my good friend Alba Ecstasy who completed the interpretation of my parts with effects and some very inspired solos. Symphony of the silent notes was the concert title.
There were performed songs from the album composed by Nord: Symphony of the silent notes, Solstitivm and some songs from the upcoming album titled Berlin. As the title of this next album shows, the album will contain songs written in the style of Berlin school.
On the 24 th of April 2012 took place The Electronic Museum Concert by Alba Ecstasy & Nord at the Szekler National Museum from Saint George (Sf. Gheorghe/Sepsiszentgyörgy). All the compositions were performed in the Berlin school of electronic music style.
In 2014 took place an other live show in Saint George (Sf. Gheorghe/Sepsiszentgy0rgy) in collaboration with Alba Ecstasy: Live at the Library.
In 2018 Nord is between the 20 winners of the German SCHALLWELLE Electronic Music Award. Nord won the 11th price in the Best Artist category, The 11th and the 18th price in the Best Album category with Black Tears (11th price) and The Tree of Life (18 th price) albums.
Between 2010 and 2018 were published several electronic music albums:
Avant Garden Party
Hypnosis
Symphony of the Silent Notes
Solstitivm
Berlin
Memories
Sequences
Behind the Violet Clouds
Rain in my Dream
Landscapes
Sequenced Feelings.
Bells of the Sun.
Hydra
Mare Nubium.
Vortex
A Red Zenith
Pendulum
Rings of Fire
The Hidden Garden of Semiramis
Shadows of Time
Saulen der Schöpfung
The Tree of Life
Black Tears
Whispers
My Christmas Collection
Digital Dreams
Andreas Meyer is an alternative pure Berlin School of Electronic Music project of the man behind the Nord Project, Sztakics Istvan Attila.
Irrgarten 1 & 2 are available now on his Bandcamp page.
As usual I am working now on new albums.