With the release of their debut single “Island of Promise,” the Budapest-based electronic music production and artist duo Belau — Peter Kedves and Buzas Krisztian — quickly exploded into the national scene for a buoyant, summery and dance floor friendly sound that according to the rising Hungarian electronic duo meant to evoke “cheerful places, filled with sunshine, where one can relax, unwind and find peace and harmony.”

“Island of Promise” eventually landed at #1 on Deezer Hungary, one of the country’s biggest streaming services. Since its release, “Island of Promise” has amassed over 500,000 streams, was featured in the HBO Hungary series Aranyélet, and in an international Pepsi ad campaign shown in 33 countries.

Building upon growing profile, Belau’s full-length debut, 2016’s The Odyssey won a Hungarian Grammy for Best Electronic Music Album. The albums as supported with an intense touring schedule — 120 shows in 19 countries with stops across the international festival circuit, including sets at Eurosonic, Sziget, Reeperbahn, Untold, and SXSW. After The Odyssey, the JOVM mainstays released a series of remixes of The Odyssey tracks, and a handful of singles that included “Breath,” a sultry, dance floor friendly collaboration with Sophie Lindinger centered around glitchy beats and a sinuous yet anthemic hook and the Massive Attack-like “Natural Pool.”

2019’s sophomore effort Colourwave found the JOVM mainstays expanding upon the sound that won them international attention as you would have heard on two of the album’s singles:

“Rapture,” a collaboration with Blue Foundation‘s Kirstine Stubbe Teglbjærg centered around a trip hop-inspired production featuring shimming synth arpeggios, wobbling low end and Stubbe Teglbjærg’s sultry vocals.
“Essence,” a collaboration with Sophie Barker that features Barker’s sultry vocals gliding over a shimmering production centered around looping, reverb-drenched guitar shimmering synths, skittering beats and an enormous hook that brought Third-era Portishead and Octo Octa to mind – but a with a brooding air.

“Luz,” is the highly anticipated follow up to 2019’s Colourwaves and the track, which features Sexto Sentido — Arlety Valdés and Yudelkis Lafuente — is a decided sonic departure for the JOVM mainstays that reminds me of fellow JOVM mainstays Ibeyi with the track being centered around shimmering and atmospheric synths and skittering beats and Sexto Sentido’s gorgeous and expressive vocals singing lyrics in Yoruba and Spanish. The end result is an otherworldly track that stretches towards the infinite.

“’Luz’ is kind of a bridge to our future album; it’s a bit different from our earlier releases.,” the Budapest-based JOVM mainstays explain. “This single is a harmonic blend of traditional Afro-Cuban folk music and modern electronica, the lyrics in yoruba and spanish. This song is a spiritual journey for us, it will be the part of Colourwave DLX album with some remixes, reimagined versions and live sessions in April.”