Ukraine has come under renewed attack by the Russian Federation, and it brings to mind a memorable event that occurred near the end of the summer. After following the Ukrainian band DakhaBrakha for years, I finally had the opportunity to see them in concert this past August at The Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda, near Washington, DC. I arrived at the concert with high hopes and great expectations, but despite this the evening far exceeded what I had anticipated. Their performance was superb, and the evening was extremely moving in many ways.
DakhaBrakha’s four members—Nina Garenetska, Olena Tsibulska, Iryna Kovalenko and Marko Halanevych—play a variety of instruments that include cello, accordion, bass drums, piano, mouth harp, a variety of bird call whistles, and a seemingly endless collection of other instruments, but their music is vocally centered. Despite drawing upon a wide range of musical styles, all of their music is deeply rooted in Ukrainian culture. The women use a bracing, full-throated Ukrainian-style vocal production with minimal vibrato, which accentuates their unison singing, polyphony and close harmony, with Halanevych providing contrast through his vocals that at times include falsetto.
In the performance they combined their distinct musical style with visual elements that greatly enhanced the effect of the music and added to the richness of the evening. To accomplish this the band’s production team included two control boards, one for the wall of wonderfully produced sound that came from the stage, and one for a series of amazing projected backdrops. Some incorporated AP news photography—for example, aerial photographs of neighborhoods in Ukraine where buildings had been blown apart—but the most engaging ones were fantastical, highly colorful graphic creations. When entering the hall prior to the concert, audience members were greeted by a large backdrop that filled the stage behind the waiting chairs and instruments. Using the colors of the Ukrainian flag, it makes a strong statement of intention, showing four abstracted figures in blue that represent the performers holding two banners overhead reading, “NO WAR,” and “STOP PUTIN,” on a vast yellow background. The group has been using this image for several years and it can be seen on many of their pieces available on YouTube.
DakhaBrakha, which means Give/Take in Ukrainian, was created as a theater project in 2004 at the Dakh (Roof) theatre in Kiev when that company’s founder and director, Vlad Troitsky, decided to experiment with Ukrainian folklore and began producing plays that required musical accompaniment. He was surprised to learn that there was little communication between Ukrainian artists, and so he began to stage “art parties” at the Dakh. Halanevych, who earned a degree in philology and then taught himself to play the tabla and accordion, was working as an actor when he met the other three members of what would become DakhaBrakha at these parties. Garenetska, Tsibulska and Kovalenko, who had been trained in ethnomusicology, were steeped in Ukrianian traditional music and had been singing since early childhood.
Working within a theatrical sensibility, the group creates musical amalgams that inflect traditional Ukrainian music with a wide variety of other musical styles. In a 2015 interview Halanevych explained, “Every song has a traditional source recorded in a Ukrainian village,” but these field-recorded tunes are modified, some in subtle ways, others more radically, by drawing on a wide range of traditions. He says, “We described our style as ethno chaos and realized that it flowed with the global river of world music.”
Their signature costumes reflect this approach. Because they do not play authentic traditional Ukrainian music using traditional performance styles, they realized from the start that they could not wear traditional Ukrainian costumes. Thus, although their appearance seems vaguely traditional, in truth it is a post-modern statement that mirrors their music. The most obvious example of this is the towering hats worn by the three women. These signature elements of their costumes were suggested by an actress at the Dakh named Tetiana Vasylenko. They are not Ukrainian, per se, and most closely resemble hats worn by Bulgarian men on special occasions.
No printed program was provided for the concert, but their amazing musical offering lasted almost two hours without an intermission, and was received with overwhelming enthusiasm by the audience, which seemed to include a significant number of Ukrainian expatriates.
The opportunity to hear DakhaBrakha on a future tour is not one to be missed. It will be a singular experience.
Here are some links to more information on the group:
DakhaBrakha’s website: http://www.dakhabrakha.com.ua/en/about/
Musical performances:
NPR Tiny Desk Concert: https://youtu.be/hsNKSbTNd5I
Live on KEXP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hxg1dL_x0gw
Live at the Kennedy Center: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxmCVEGpKyw
“Monkh”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFJ717atqaw
“Vesna”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3OJVMuHwcU
“Carpathian Rap”: https://youtu.be/7Tn9TtU9E5c
Articles:
“Harmonizing Ethno Chaos” [The Ukrainian Week, link currently not working]
“DakhaBrakha rolls world’s music into Ukrainian folk”
“From Ukraine with pride: The band DakhaBrakha waves their flag in Minneapolis”
Get to know funky Ukrainian folk band DakhaBrakha
“Friday Night Music: Dakhabrakha in Kyiv” (Blog posting by Paul Krugman)
[includes this YouTube link: YELENA The Khmeleva project DakhaBrakha & Port Mone live in Kyiv
Sources for this blog post:
“Harmonizing Ethno Chaos.” The Ukrainian Week (16 September, 2013). Accessed 02-11-2018: http://ukrainianweek.com/Culture/89386; “DakhaBrakha rolls world’s music into Ukrainian folk.” The Seattle Times (September 24 & 26, 2015). Accessed 02-11-2018: https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/music/dakhabrakha-to-bring-world-music-hybrid-to-the-neptune/
Photo credits: S. Greene (pre-concert photo); M. Wilpers (all other photos)