Kovász is a Budapest-based quartet founded in 2022 by saxophonist and composer Gergő Kováts. Hungarian and Transylvanian folk music is thrown into a restless mix of jazz and free improvisation, with traditional dance rhythms often providing the engine. Grooves lock in, slip sideways or break open; melodies are stretched and distorted, while asymmetric meters keep pulling the music off balance.
The band's sound is just as unruly. Fuvolya, saxophone synthesizer and prepared gardon expand the usual jazz-quartet palette, while experimental electronics push the acoustic instruments into rougher and less familiar territory. Contemporary electronic dance music enters through the same kind of cross-wiring: a Moldavian sârba can brush up against Brazilian funk, a Transylvanian szökős against a wonky beat, while the synths range from icy to deliberately playful.
Kovász released its debut album, Fermentum, on BMC Records in 2025.