KFT
[The Limited Liability Partnership]

The Kft Band was formed in 1981 by four musicians, former schoolmates who had teamed up earlier (András Laár, Tibor Bornai, Miklós Lengyel II, András Márton), and unexpected good fortune. In the year of their formation the band immediately won two awards in Hungary's largest musical event, the Hungarian Television's Dance and Pop Song Festival. Their hit tune, "Bábu vagy" / ("You're a Puppet"), performed in costume, with painted faces and puppet-like choreography and what was then unfamiliar sound, made them known throughout the country in one fell swoop. In the four months following their television debut, the band performed over two hundred concerts by invitation around the country.

Kft demonstrated its attraction toward theatrical props in scenes of the absurd along with poetry, which they incorporated into their concerts - and which remains their hallmark. They also presented a play set to music, first performed at the center for movement [alternative] theater in Hungary, the Szkéné Theater.

With their original sound and world of lyrics the band established a distinctive Hungarian "New-Wave" in music, of which they were considered the prime example. Kft released eight albums, was asked by other popular performers to compose songs or lyrics for them, and was invited for guest appearances. Their recognition is acknowledged to this day - in 2001 the profession chose Tibor Bornai as the year's best lyricist.

In addition to their fondness for theatrical elements, Kft also uses the latest technology on hand. During the middle of the 1980s the band developed a multi-media computer program to accompany one of their albums. At the dawn of the Internet age in Hungary, in 1996 (when there was only one person in the entire country involved in the official registration of domain names), they presented a huge concert at the Budapest Sports Arena before an audience of 15 thousand ["Bál az Interneten / ("A Ball on the Internet"), www.kft.hu/bal] at the time www.kft.hu was the first nationally advertised domain name in Hungary. The unusualness of the event is marked by the fact that the government's Minister of Communications accepted to be its primary patron. At the concert, in real time with the help of the Internet, a recognized Hungarian artist from Los Angeles, András Wahorn, "painted" a computer-design illustration projected on a giant screen, while Hazel O'Connor sang with the band synchronized from a studio in Dublin, Ireland. The production enlisted the participation of the telephone companies of three countries and numerous computer technology firms.

Kft performs in Hungarian and gives concerts in Hungary, although they have toured in neighboring countries with Hazel O'Connor (with whom they have come out with two songs jointly). The band has been to Cuba, several European cities, and performed once at the Los Angeles Street Scene Festival. Since the beginning of the 1990s Kft only performs at larger events, at times years pass between appearances. At the present time, the band is working on a new release.

Members of Kft also pursue individual activities, which are in a nutshell:

András Laár
Guitar and vocals
Founded the theater of the absurd in Hungary. The theatrical company that bears his name, which he founded and in which he performs, is still the most popular in the country in this discipline. He taught several years at the Buddhist College in Budapest, is a student of astrology, editor of a monthly magazine on esoteric disciplines called "Javaslap" [roughly,"Oraculor"], and plays ritual music with his chamber ensemble.

Tibor Bornai
Keyboards and vocals
Has produced his own compositions and has written for other artists, including the most popular Hungarian female vocalist. A volume of his humorous and philosophical prose was published in 2001.

Miklós Lengyel, II
Bass, bass guitar, vocals
Editor-in-chief, by invitation, of the leading monthly publication for professional musicians. He appears regularly in concerts as guest performer with several name artists.

András Márton
Percussion, vocals
Founder and Editor-in-chief of a periodical on history, with a style of its own, similar to a daily. His translations of lyrics by the Beatles have appeared in a bilingual edition. He was editor and screenwriter of the first multi-media CD-ROM for the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, Hungary and is the inventor of a computerized system for theatrical and television prompting.

o u t e r Space Premiere
Kft's new album may first be heard by extra-terrestials...

After fourteen years the Kft Band is working on a new album. The CD due to come out this spring will probably be a delicious treat for the hungry fans. Fact is that the premier itself is an amazing cosmic event.

Kft has always been the first to use the most modern equipment that appeared on the horizon here in Hungary, the heart of Central Europe. We need only to recall their 1985 multi-media program [at a time when Hungary was still an East-Bloc member of the Warsaw Pact]. Then there was the 1996 international internet concert, www.kft.hu at the time, in the Sports Arena [before the cheered institution suddenly went up in flames a few years ago]. The members of the band thought that now, at the beginning of the third millenium, they would premier their new songs before a wider audience than usual - to be heard first by extra-terrestials, E.T.

The band created a cooperative venture with noted Hungarian space expert, Nándor Schuminszky; Christina Garda, "Kft's Ambassador of Extra-Terrestial Affairs to the United States;" András Márton, who otherwise wears the title of "President and Space Commander of the UFO-Host Committee" at the Kapolcs Arts Valley Festival [an increasingly popular post-transition summer event in the northern vineyard hills of Lake Balaton]; and the Houston-based group, Team Encounter.
The first step on the stairs of this cooperative effort is to premier the new album in outer space. Within the framework of the "Cosmic Call" program, alongside messages from Sir Arthur C. Clarke, David Bowie, Greg Lake and astronaut Sally Ride, Kft's songs will begin their journey in the universe (compositions by Laár, Bornai and Márton), beyond the Solar System. In addition to the songs a special 30-second video-message is being made, which the band is filming jointly with Gábor Herendi, director of the most successful domestic film in recent years, "Valami Amerika"/["Some...thing America"]. The Broadcast will go out on July 5 via an astronomic radio antenna, 70-meter in diameter, from Evpatoriya in the Ukraine.
"Cosmic Call" will broadcast "civilian" messages also; at this time, nearly one hundred thousand people have registered from 53 countries around the world.