THY CATAFALQUE have released "Cseremisz", the third single from their thirteenth album, XIII: Sárga erdő, with an official music video. Tamás Kátai's project returns on November 20 through Season of Mist.
Kátai calls the song a folk song that never existed. The title is the Hungarian name for the Cheremis, today known as the Mari — a Finno-Ugric people living along the Volga, an ethnic minority in the Mari El republic in russia and distant relatives of the Hungarians. Kátai says he learned about them in primary school and they always felt "very distant and mystical" to him. "Cseremisz" is a fictional folk song from that region, one that, he adds, "could be connected to recent historical events as well."
Musically, the track leans on traditional instruments — the citera (a Hungarian zither) and the koboz (a lute) — alongside accordion, a male choir and vocals from Bálint Bokodi, one of the familiar voices in THY CATAFALQUE's orbit.
"Cseremisz" follows "Tömbök", which Kátai described as the darkest and heaviest song on the record. XIII: Sárga erdő ("Yellow Forest") features more than 30 collaborators, including a 20-voice choir and, for the first time in the project's history, a live drummer. The folk and classical elements that flooded 2024's XII: A gyönyörű álmok ezután jönnek are handled with a lighter touch this time.
The album will be available as a CD mediabook, digitally and on several 2LP gatefold vinyl variants.
Pre-order / pre-save "XIII: Sárga erdő": orcd.co/thycatafalquesargaerdo