DAKHA BRAKHA: UKRAINE’S PREMIER WORLD MUSIC ENSEMBLE
D
uring the last two decades the quality and scope of Ukrainian music has taken a quantum leap. The establishment of an independent country has liberated composers, vocalists, and musical artists from the suffocating standards of Soviet monotony and unleashed boundless creativity. Rock, metal, jazz, blues, and folk (in all imaginable configurations) have found expression in the musical soul of 21st-century Ukraine. Whereas popular Russian music has devolved to the level of crass pop and visually marketable sleaze, the Ukrainian musical scene has exploded with diversity, color, and soul. One such group that is at the top of the list of musical innovation is Dakha Brakha. Founded at an experimental Dakh Theater in Kyiv in 2004, the music and sounds created and performed by this group surpass expectation. Categorized as “world music” and “ethno-chaos,” Dakha Brakha’s creative genius exceeds the restrictiveness of genre and engages the listener by participating in each and every intimate exchange of forgotten sounds and ignored senses. The term “dakha-brakha” is derived from Old Ukrainian and means “to give and to take.” In a conversation I had with the group’s only male member, Marko Halanevych, after one of their concerts in Chicago, he noted that performance involves a “give and take” of sacred energy with the listening audience.