PORTA / Kalakan / DakhaBrakha

DAKHABRAKHA (ENG apraksts)

DakhaBrakha — is world-music quartet from Kyiv, Ukraine. Reflecting fundamental elements of sound and soul, Ukrainian «ethnic chaos» band DakhaBrakha, create a world of unexpected new music.   The name DakhaBrakha is original, outstanding and authentic at the same time. It means «give/take» in the old Ukrainian language.   DakhaBrakha was created in 2004 at the Kyiv Center of Contemporary Art «DAKH» by the avant-garde theatre director — Vladyslav Troitskyi. Theatre work has left its mark on the band performances — their shows have never been staged without the scenic effects. Having experimented with Ukrainian folk music, the band has added rhythms of the surrounding world into their music, thus creating bright, unique and unforgettable image of DakhaBrakha. It will help to open up the potential of Ukrainian melodies and to bring it to the hearts and consciousness of the younger generation in Ukraine and the rest of the world as well. Accompanied by Indian, Arabic, African, Russian and Australian traditional instrumentation, the quartet’s astonishingly powerful and uncompromising vocal range creates a trans-national sound rooted in Ukrainian culture.  At the crossroads of Ukrainian folklore and theatre their musical spectrum is intimate then riotous, plumbing the depths of contemporary roots and rhythms, inspiring «cultural and artistic liberation».

KALAKAN (Basque Country)

1 band: 3 basque singers and percussionists from France – Pierre, Xan and Jamixel.

1 language: Euskara (basque language), the language of the traditional basque song, the language of the heart, their language.

1 music: Freedom to serve the essential. Simplicity, Elegance and Emotion. 

From the first notes, the atmosphere is clear. The light, the simple scenery and all the attention is focused on the trio and its music. On a refined staging, Kalakan brings together auditors and musicians around music and the feelings that it provides.  Proud and respectful of the past, resolutely turned towards the future, these 3 Basque artists are involved into inscribing in the present the modernity of their millenary culture. They perform a repertoire of songs from the 15th century to the present day, as well as their own compositions.  To put all this in “vibration”, in “emotion” and in “energy”, they use their voices and their drums but also all these traditional instruments with the esoteric consonances, and “contemporaries” for centuries, like: txalaparta, txirula, tobera, pandero, xilintx and even an harmonium from India.