THY CATAFALQUE introduce “Tömbök,” the second single from their thirteenth album, XIII: Sárga erdő, with an accompanying music video. In the announcement supplied by Season of Mist, Tamás Kátai identifies the clip as the project’s first video showing the band playing a song.
Kátai’s explanation of the track begins with its title: “In English, ‘Tömbök’ means Masses”. The lyrics concern waste incineration, the separation of material into heat and slag, and the changes matter undergoes under different chemical and physical conditions.
He also offers a possible connection between that process and everyday experience: “You can apply the phenomenon to how the human mindset is affected by daily life, if you wish, though that’s just an idea”. The announcement describes “Tömbök” as the album’s darkest and heaviest song.
Gábor Veres contributes vocals to the track, which also features flute. The supplied album credits additionally identify Ivett Dudás on vocals, Krisztián Varga and Zoltán Vigh on lead guitar, and Dario Cei on flute for “Tömbök”. Kátai is credited with guitar, bass, keyboards and vocals.
XIII: Sárga erdő takes its title from the Hungarian words for “Yellow Forest”. The accompanying album account describes a feeling of moving through old, partly remembered time rather than a single narrative connecting its twelve tracks. It also describes a lighter use of folk and classical instrumentation than on the preceding XII: A gyönyörű álmok ezután jönnek.
The record introduces played drums to THY CATAFALQUE’s studio work, with Árpád Szenti credited on drums and percussion. Its contributors also include the Male Choir of Tiszaföldvár, credited on “Cseremisz”, alongside guest singers and instrumentalists working with strings, woodwinds, brass and traditional instruments.
Kátai produced the album. Recording took place at various locations and at Miracle Sound Szeged in Hungary, with Gábor Vári handling sound engineering, mixing and mastering. Kátai is also credited with the cover art, with album-artwork photography credited to Laszlo Horvath.
THY CATAFALQUE began in Makó, Hungary, in 1998 with Kátai and János Juhász. Initially conceived as a studio project, it later moved into live performance. That background gives context to Kátai’s distinction between the new “Tömbök” clip and the project’s earlier videos: the announcement specifically presents this one as a band playing the song.
