Tom Polonkai – Parallel Lives Meet at Infinity?

Parallel lines meet at infinity.

Parallel lives can meet earlier, if they want to meet, if they give more from themselves, if they accept the other.

 and me, we have been heading for the same direction for 30 years. He composes music, writes lyrics, plays guitar, sings. I write articles, release records, organize concerts, publish music. We have been moving in the same direction for 30 years, in a particularly significant distance from each other. He started in Eger. I was born in Gödöllő. He began to play drums in 1990, when my first review was published in Új Metal Hammer H magazine. The story of our interactions started then and there.

„The fact that Metal Hammer was published in Hungarian from the spring of 1989 was a turning point in discovering new music. I loved the writings of Joseph Szarka very much. I bought a lot of records based on his reviews. I will never forget the way he wrote about Shame of  : right after reading his review, I was walking on the Korona square in Eger, and absolutely unexpectedly I found the album at the cassette seller’s stand, nothing compares to its artwork.”

Tom started his band called   in 1993, and I wrote the review of their first demo containing 8 tracks in the December issue of the admired magazine. It was one of my last publications for decades because I started to work for Sony Music, and I sensed a conflict of interest in the situation. P.I.D. continued creating music, but they got off my radar. I have not heard the four-track demo called Oneiromancy in 1997, nor the five songs of Perfect in 1998, nor Paintomine in 1999. They released Kincs (Treasure) in 2002 that cemented their legendary status in the Hungarian metal underground. The grunge/stoner hymn is painfully beautiful and alive in 2020.

„I have no other treasure
Grip it firm”

Their next song released titled My Private Journey became a classic as well, but the 3 new tracks – accompanying the previously recorded Kincs – on their upcoming EP titled Sóhajok hídja (Bridges of Sighs) disappointed a lot of followers. Polly Is Dead disbanded soon, and I lost sight of Tom for a long time. No matter that he started a new band called   (Whale Rider) around 2009 and released the album titled Holdraforgó in 2013, I have not heard about his efforts. As I was not aware that he released a solo album titled Apokrif in 2013.

June 21, 2017, Tamas sent me a link on Messenger to an article on   about the debut song (Gift) of his new band ( ).  , the founder of Grungery, not only introduced the song, but later on released the whole album (The 47th Parallel North) that is a pure grunge masterpiece. Miklós brought back something extremely special to the Hungarian music press that I considered to be lost forever. His dedication, fanatism, professionalism is exemplary. When the first, 36-page printed issue of Grungery: Seattle-Budapest Grunge Magazine was released as an annex to the May 2019 issue of  , there was no question about reading it from the first letter to the last. There I read the Polonkai interview I quoted above. I was surprised how influential my writings were to Tamas, and after 26 years, he still considers them as a major impact on his musical taste. Likemindedness forced me to examine deeply his top lists collected for the 4-pager, and his choice of Most Influential Book made me think. Why Bhagavad Gita? Never heard of it before. I ordered two different English translation immediately, and the text had an elemental impact on my world view. Chapter 2, Verse 47, brought the most significant new insight to me:

„You have the right to work, but for the work’s sake only. You have no right to the fruits of work. Desire for the fruits of work must never be your motive in working. Never give way to laziness, either.”

At first, it sounded unnatural, still familiar. I contemplated it a lot and shared it with friends and family, most of whom found it hard to accept, yet I love the idea. I have been reading the third, critical edition of the Gíta already, and a lot of thoughts from it appear in my writings, in my Facebook posts, that made a lot of friends and family members caution me that I am too honest, too revealing. Without this openness, I would not get so many new impulses and feedback, there would be no new connections, friendships. I would not have met Tom in person after 30 years of distant acquaintance. My confessions revealed to him that aside metal, I am open to a lot of different aspects of life. On February 1, 2020, he approached me with the long-cherished idea of his first-ever mantra album. He yarned about the ancient Indian sacred chats, about his plan on how to record them, what kind of instrument does he need for it. Even the coronavirus epidemic was not able to stop us. With the help of the Hungarian representative (Zoli Szabó) and the German head office, I bought an excellent Ibanez guitar for the recordings.   visited Sohajda Peter (who sung Kincs) in his studio in Eger and recorded seven mantras. We approached Nikoletta Kele to make a painting for the cover of the album to be called Sarasvati Devi’s Grace, then we asked her to paint seven additional pictures to be able to release each mantra separately worthily as well.

Here we are now.

The question is if the result of our efforts will be greater than the sum of its parts.

Whether two thin lines will run forward parallel or just one, thicker than the two together?