The future sound of Ukraine

It’s a night in Berlin. Illumination under the ceiling flashes with blue and yellow lights. A song by Ukrainian band Braty Hadiukiny with electronic beats is heard from the dynamics. Most of the young visitors are having fun on the dancing floor, with only a few ones standing near the bar. The most outstanding happy-go-lucky, wearing jeans and an embroidered shirt, shows breath-taking jumps, which are a mixture of hopak and break dance movements.

This is “Born in UA” disco, a new project and a brainchild of musician and DJ Yurii Hurzha, 41-year-old Kharkivite, currently residing in Berlin. In 1992-95 he worked on the first independent radio stations in Ukraine. After moving to Germany, together with litterateur Volodymyr Kaminer he created a dancing club “Russendisko,” which has become popular all over Germany, and its repertoire consisted of (post) Soviet, Russian, Ukrainian, and Jewish, rock and pop music.

After the Revolution of Dignity and the beginning of Russian aggression against Ukraine, Yurii with the agreement of his partner, stopped to hold the parties of Russendisko and founded as a DJ a new project which makes emphasis mostly on Ukrainian repertoire, Born in UA.

But the activity of our fellow countryman is not limited only to this. He is also the leader of international, in terms of the lineup and repertoire, rock-klezmer band RotFront, and recently Yurii has also published a collection of modern Ukrainian music in Germany, Borshch Division – Future Sound of Ukraine, which includes the songs by DakhaBrakha, Perkalaba, Serhii Zhadan and Sobaky u kosmosi, Taras Chubai, Mariana Sadovska, Hutsul Kalipso, 5’nizza – overall 16 bands and solo projects. Besides Germany, the CD is on sale in the stores in Japan, Great Britain, and Italy.

We met in Berlin, in order to discuss how the Kharkiv-born musician manages to achieve success in Germany, preserving his Ukrainian identity at the same time.

RUSSENDISKO

Yurii, the story of Russendisko is well known. I have only one question. Why Germans started to attend these parties?

“It was a combination of many factors. A certain part of Russian-speaking community has gathered here. It was hard to ignore them, and the world became more open, whereas the East-European topic became more topical. We offered to combine moderate music exotics with modern beats. Another important aspect is that when Russendisco had existed for three or four months, Volodymyr Kaminer published a book, which became a bestseller in Germany, so the press flowed to us to speak about the book. In such a way, we got a lot of free promotion, and the writer + DJ combination was perceived as something new. People came out of curiosity and stayed, because it was accessible and attractive, and favorably differed from the mainstream of that time.”

Why did you close the project?

“We had been working on it for 15 years, which is a very long period of time. At some point of time it started to be a burden for me. Volodia might have had a similar situation, besides, he was involved in other things as a public person. After the situation in Ukraine exacerbated, it became hard for me even physically. But we didn’t perceived Russendisko as purely Russian disco. Ukrainian music was an important component, and we released our first Ukrainian collection nine years ago. At a certain point of time I understood that I would remove the Russian part from the repertoire and get focused on Ukrainian and Jewish music. Kaminer took a clear political stand, like me. By the way, that was a very responsible move for him as a public person, and I want to express my huge respect to him for that: he faced attacks on all sides, a serious pressure. We have been actively communicating with him, he supports my new initiative.”

BORN IN UA

What do you include in the repertoire of Born in UA?

“First, I make a focus on the music produced by Ukrainians by origin, not necessarily in Ukraine. I have always interpreted such things freely.”

What were the criteria of choice in this case?

“A specific sound. More live, not electronic sound. I want to play the music of the 1970s, I have interpreted it in modern context.”

That’s interesting.

“I was growing (and you understand me very well), when these vocal-instrumental ensembles were an absolute opposite of what we were listening to, they seemed to be dull and banal variety shows. But with time I started to discover some things for myself. When there is no opposition between rock music and variety show, you listen to them in an absolutely different way. There was one more discovery: Ukrainian music made at the same period of time in Canada and America. It is very interesting to compare it with what was made in Ukraine at that time. Sometimes if you don’t see the cover, you think that both kinds of music are performed by the same people. Sometimes this is very powerful psychedelic funk. In a word, this is an exciting process of discovering old and new things.

“As for the criteria, as a music lover I can pay their due to modern bands whose sound meets all standards of sound, but very often they lose actually the Ukrainian component. Guitar indie rock created according to the latest word of technique is beautiful, but it could have been created in Sweden or Bulgaria just as well. I don’t see this in my dancing context. I am looking for an authentic element and often I find it. The audience responds correspondingly. After the first set, I have had several interesting talks with local Ukrainian activists about music identity. In case with Russendisko, we didn’t have anything of this kind, we included many things mechanically. Now it is much more interesting to work on creation of the new format in this sense.”

Who comes to Born in UA?

“The guests are not as numerous as we want, but they are enough for a new project, most of them are diaspora and some of my Georgian friends. The club is located in a tourist spot. I am expecting versatile audience to come.”

What are you hoping to attract the audience with?

“Born in UA is a continuation of what I have worked on before. It has potential audience, but the audience needs to understand that this is the next page. If the music has something in it, which resonates with the local audience, it can move from the niche place to a broader level. The so-called Balkan parties of the past 15 years in the same seamless manner have integrated into the all-European stage. A good friend of mine, who started this wave of Balkan beats, working as a taxi driver during the day and as a DJ in quasi-legal clubs at night, is currently a star in this genre.”

FRIENDS

As far as I know, you actively cooperate with Ukrainian bands. In which form?

“In a variety of directions. For several years I have been working from distance with the band MaMa Diaspora. This is a duo of producers of electronic music who make music and invite vocalists; I cooperated with them in this capacity and I also write texts for them.”

What about Borshch Division?

“Of all of my works, this is a collection of works least meant for discos. In my opinion, it is a cross-section of definitely actual music, it fixes the traditions which in the nearest time, I’m sure, will be very popular, hence the subtitle, Next sound of Ukraine. Interestingly, many of the participants had never met before the project, they met each other owing to the project.”

Apparently, this is a specific purpose of yours, to introduce talented people to each other.

“I am planning to take several German musicians in May or June and go across Ukraine and record a solo album with friends. I have the material, but I am still looking for funding, because the tour is quite large-scale. We’ll see what will come out of this. This idea is absolutely non-commercial. What we make, if the funding is enough, will be uploaded for free listening, which meets my ideal vision of how music should develop today.”

You have one more music connection in Ukraine, Serhii Zhadan’s band, Sobaky u kosmosi.

“I am involved there as a guitarist, singer, and one of the generators of the ideas. For Zhadan and I are peers and come from one city. I am a big admirer of his prose and poetry, at some point of time it became the beginning of new era for me.”

How did it happen?

“The lessons of Ukrainian literature at school convinced me that, by few exceptions, it is completely boring. I left Ukraine at the age of 20 and didn’t come back for eight years. When I came again, in early 2000s, I saw in a bookstore a shelf full of works by contemporary Ukrainian writers. That was incredible exotics for me. I saw the names, Zhadan, Karpa, bought both books and ‘swallowed’ them in the train. I was stupefied. That was the time when I started to follow Serhii. Then I lived for a year in Berlin and we met at the end of that year. Since then we have been staying in touch, our families are on friendly terms. I have been involved in their albums, I have performed with them here, when they came. Now we have decided that I will be doing the same thing, but more. This is the purpose of my trip to Kyiv. I think this music is very topical, namely in the context of what is going on presently and, on the other hand, it possesses something that overwhelms the momentary value.”

A GENIUS AND EVIL DEED

We have discussed political topics several times and the question inevitably rises, what the stand of an artist should be. Recently I have heard the opinion that artists are not quite from this world, that their words of actions can be forgiven. What do you think about this?

“I try not to speak categorically in such situations.”

Why?

“Sometimes it hurts, especially when the political stand of the person influences your perception of his work. Sometimes funny things happen, when they say that everything this person has done in the past 30 years must be banned. This is absurd. Mickey Rourke wearing a T-shirt with Putin’s portrait doesn’t prevent me from watching good old films where he plays. But of course generally I don’t want to open books or listen to the music of people who have chosen a similar stand. However, I must say, I have never sympathized with most of them. Painful breaks happen very rarely. So you don’t contradict your stand when the main criterion is whether the music is talented or not.”

I think an artist who sells himself to a tyrant loses his talent, no matter how great it is.

“This is true. But it seems to me that sometimes a genius which not only founds itself at the service of evil, but is sincerely consent with the evil did, not necessarily disappears, but is pouring the water on a wrong mill. But in most of cases I notice that such people lack any talent at all.”