Polyrhytmic noise from Ukraine. Revolution in the sound.
I am from Poland and the current situation in Ukraine is touching me deeply for many different reasons. I discovered Kateryna Zavoloka a while ago and revisited her work when the war escalated, looking for some sort of relief…. even though it sounds ridiculous.
Zavoloka (full name, Kateryna Zavoloka) is a contemporary experimental and electronic music composer, sound artist and graphic designer from Kiev, Ukraine.
The word zavoloka means deep fog and also maverick in Ukrainian . Zavoloka’s main interests in music are to mix ancient Ukrainian traditions with modern electronic music technology. She combines melodic experimental electronic music with self-recorded Ukrainian folk music.
Together with Dmytro Fedorenko (Kotra), she’s a part of Cluster Lizard.
In 2014 Zavoloka published an EP inspired by the Ukrainian winter revolution; the music oscillates between electronica and industrial rhythms made of samples of beaten metal.
“Volya (Freedom) was inspired by the Maidan winter revolution in Kiev in 2013 and 2014. During the street riots I asked myself, What can I do here as an artist? So I started to audio and video document. I recorded metal rhythms when activists were banging on burned police vehicles. When the police were beating activists, people were banging faster.”
The feeling i get listening to this piece is overwhelming, it hits all my sad buttons and just make me want to cry. It also has so much power and strong energy I have never experienced from any other sound work I just wish this was only a relict of the past for the people of Ukraine.. unfortunately it’s not.
https://clusterlizard.bandcamp.com/
https://zavoloka.bandcamp.com/