Considering that Ukraine has a big neighbor which thinks that even the existence of our country is a historical misunderstanding, a Freemasons project of the Polish or the Austro-Hungarian Empire, then every one of our concerts abroad can be regarded as a political act in itself. |
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DakhaBrakha singer/cellist/percussionist Nina Garenetska at Rock in Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Sept. 27, 2019. |
(Mauricio Santana/Getty Images) |
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quote of the day |
“Considering that Ukraine has a big neighbor which thinks that even the existence of our country is a historical misunderstanding, a Freemasons project of the Polish or the Austro-Hungarian Empire, then every one of our concerts abroad can be regarded as a political act in itself.”
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- Marko Halanevych, DakhaBrakha accordionist and singer
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rantnrave:// |
How to Sing in a Democracy
One of the main features distinguishing traditional Ukrainian folk singing from traditional Russian folk singing, according to IRYNA KOVALENKO, one of the three classically trained female singers in the long-running Kyiv quartet DAKHABRAKHA, is "the Ukrainian polyphonic tradition, especially with women's voices... In Russia, they sing with one voice, but [in Ukraine] we sing in several voices."
The question, posed in a 2015 interview, not long after Ukraine's Maidan Revolution and Russia's annexation of Crimea, had nothing to do with the politics of autocracies and democracies—DakhaBrakha says its music generally has no political intent—but feel free to draw your own connections. Sometimes the mere existence of music is a political statement.
DakhaBrakha, whose name means "Give/Take" and which describes its sound as "ethno-chaos," was put together in 2004 by VLADYSLAV TROITSKYI, the director of an avant-garde Kiev theater that needed a house band. The group's theatrical roots remain strong, from its visual presentation (and not just those amazing hats) to its storytelling ethos. Still driven by Troitskyi's vision (he's credited on the band's website as "ideologist"), the foursome—Kovalenko, NINA GARENETSKA, OLENA TSYBULSKA, who are all trained singers and self-taught multi-instrumentalists, and singer/accordionist MARKO HALANEVYCH—has given itself the mission of preserving and modernizing traditional Ukrainian folk songs and stories.
Across a varied, ambitious seven-album discography, DakhaBrakha has added Indian drone, African percussion, American rock and roll and American and European minimalism to the old songs and mesmerizing "white voice" singing style of its homeland, attracting fans from around the world as well as from around Ukraine. The latter may be the more impressive accomplishment, partly because it takes a special kind of talent to get kids in any country to pay attention to culture from long before they were born, but also because of the historic lack of a music industry in Ukraine. "Moscow was tastemaker for years," manager IRYNA GORBAN told Gigwise in 2019. "Only very recently is it possible to be a popular musician in Ukraine but not popular in Moscow. Even now, all big music offices are in Moscow. Only DEEZER have their own representative in Ukraine which is separate from Russia and Belarus... But for artists of our level it’s possible not to go to Russia, not to be on TV, radio and still get people to concerts."
"It was our dream," Kovalenko told the Quietus,"to create Ukrainian blues music for the whole country. There is a real difference in style across different regions of the Ukraine. We want to create a full musical map of the Ukraine with our songs." And like a musical European Union, they want to invite everyone else in.
Rest in Peace
Los Angeles rapper YNGX 17... RICHARD PRATT, bass singer for '70s Philly soul group Blue Magic.
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“REDEF is dedicated to my mother, who nurtured and encouraged my interest in everything and slightly regrets the day she taught me to always ask ‘why?’” |
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