The Ukrainian band released an album about the Shot Revival
On the last day of winter, February 29, a Ukrainian band WALL released a musical album about the poets of the Shot Renaissance and the residents of the “Slovo” House – You [Романтика]. A poet was involved in the co-authorship Serhiy Zhadan“95 Quarter” actress and TV presenter Olena KravetsOdessa rock band “hate speech”Lviv band NAME and others. UP. Culture tells why you should listen to him.
Musicians from WALL call their album a musical about writers and urge to listen to it consecutively as a continuous story: “17 different compositions – all tracks are connected by a plot, flow into each other and give the listener the opportunity to witness historical events “with his own ears”“.
They set to music and rhyming stories the most tumultuous period in the history of our literature and the Kharkiv house of Ukrainian writers “Slovo”, every second resident of which was repressed by the Soviet authorities.
The album contains the story of Pavlo Tychyna’s betrayal and it sounds accompanied by a jazz pianist Evgenia Dubovyka. There is the service of Volodymyr Sosyura in the Third Assault Army of the Ukrainian People’s Republic under his command Serhiy Zhadan. It also tells about the suicide of Khvylovy, about the friendship of avant-garde artist Mykhailo Semenko from the band “Heistpitch” and Lesya Kurbas from the band NAME. Olena Kravets as part of the Cheka.
It took more than half a year to create the lyrics for the album, currently they number 40 pages. In addition to memories and works of writers, musicians were looking for little-known facts about that time. You can also hear phrases from the movie in the album “House Slovo. An endless novel” director Taras Tomenko.
The musicians pose an open question to the audience – “Shot Revival…is back?” and talk about unexpected references to the current situation, which were born during the recording of the album.
“When Oleksandr Khomenko and Zhenya Yanovych together they wrote one of the pieces of the album, which contains the words: “How the Reds, Whites and Poles attack our young state…”, they, one cozy December evening, thought: “Maybe we shouldn’t talk about the Poles like that? After all, such a partnership under wartime, so many refugees and aid…” They would have known then about the poster “return home you ungrateful bitches, children”, about border blockades, about turning on the alarm for the “effect” on Ukrainian farmers, about such a phantom-Stalin spilling of grain…“, MUR remembers about the creation of the song “Europe was silent”.
In addition to the actor Zhenya Yanovych, in the recording of the album Ty [Романтика] the writer and member of the band “Zhadan and dogs” Serhii Zhadan, the bands “Heitspeech”, NAZVA, pianist Yevhenii Dubovyk, musician Serhiy Martyniuk (Kolos), comedian Olena Kravets took part.
About the MUR band
WALL – a Ukrainian band that emerged after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. It was created Oleksandr Khomenko and Mykola Shmundyr.
“Until February 24, many of us listened to Russian music, adored Russian literature, cinema… And did not see a problem in this. But now you can’t just say: “We won’t be like this anymore!” – something must be done, done for the sake of one’s own culture, history, nation…” – band members previously told the Muzvar publication.
The group set itself the goal of creating songs based on the poems of Ukrainian poets and writers. In addition, they create documentary videos about the history of Ukrainian literature and music: about the song “Shchedryk”, Tychyna, Bagryany, Stus and Simonenko.
“We are all in love with Ukrainian poetry, but we understand that for a modern person, poetry is something boring, outdated, school… Let them listen to our “Panno Inno” or “Slovo – Zbroya” and say whether they think THIS kind of poetry boring or outdated. In general, we will be able to surprise you with a lot of things, regardless of whether you are a jerk like us, or on the contrary – hate ukrlit thanks to school“, say MUR.
Concert of the MUR band
drake_the_useless / Instagram
In the summer of 2022, the band gave their first solo concert and released their first album MYR vol.1. It consisted of eight compositions based on poems by Ukrainian writers, but with a modern sound and arrangement.
The second album was released in the fall of 2022 “Free little book”. It contains compositions in the style of rap, hip-hop, hard rock, soul, new wave, funk and techno based on the texts of Ukrainian classics.
“This is our dream. That schoolchildren will walk around the city and listen to Stus or Izdrik on bluetooth speakers instead of pop, and it doesn’t even matter – in the format of MUR songs or just recordings of some actors. The main thing for us is that poetry lives. And she will live, and that is wonderful“, the guys from MUR add.
The name of the band MUR appeals to Vasyl Stus’s poem “What did you say?”, which contains the following line: “…I am your enemy – I am building the wall of the Empire for you.” And also in harmony with the “Ukrainian Artistic Movement” organization. It was created by Ukrainian writers who, after World War II, lived in camps for displaced Axis powers in German exile in the 40s of the 20th century. The then MUR included Ivan Bagryaniy, Viktor Petrov, Yuriy Kosach, Igor Kostetskyi, Ivan Maistrenko and Yuriy Shevelyov (Sherekh).
