DakhaBrakha

A quartet from Kiev, Ukraine, DakhaBrakha creates a world of unexpected music at the intersection of folklore and theatre. Using folk music from various regions of Ukraine as a starting point, the band incorporates rhythms from around the planet to create a bright, fierce, and unforgettable sound. Accompanied by traditional Indian, Arabic, African, Russian, and Australian instruments, the band’s powerful and uncompromising vocal range produces a transnational sound rooted in Ukrainian culture.

The self-professed “ethno-chaos” band, formed in 2004 by avant-garde theatre director Vladyslav Troitskyi, stages its concerts with robust visual elements. A breakout sensation at Australia’s WOMADelaide world music and dance festival in 2011, the band—Nina Garenetska, Marko Halanevych, Iryna Kovalenko, and Olena Tsybulska—has performed throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America. The quartet’s name means “give/take” in old Ukrainian.

“The songs are often from ritual occasions, like weddings and funerals,” writes a New York Times reviewer. “DakhaBrakha revels in the potent, sometimes pungent chordal singing and counterpoint that overlaps Eastern Europe and the Balkans; the three women’s voices, solo or merged, are at the core of the music. But the old songs are recast and kicked into gear by nontraditional rhythms and strategies: an extended minimalist drone in one song, a beat from Senegal or Brazil or Jamaica in others, and a pizzicato cello bass line hinting at American R&B in the English-language song ‘Specially for You,’ which had Mr. Halanevych singing in soul-man falsetto.”

Artistic Viewpoints will not be offered before the concert.