Six Days Of Ethno Chaos
DakhaBrakha at WOMADelaide 2011
written by Rostyslav Becker
Day One
Ethno Chaos evokes notions of anarchic confusion and disharmony. Yet, as Marko Halanevych of DakhaBrakha articulately explains, chaos is the impulse for creation.
Being a stage performer as well as musician, Marko knows too well that performance risks and experimentation will take you on wildly unexpected yet often exhilarating turns. For DakhaBrakha experimentation means grounding their music in traditional Ukrainian folklore and then throwing in rhythms and instruments from Asia, Africa, Australia, and The Middle East.
Six glorious days with DakhaBrakha would expose me to many seemingly disparate concepts working in creative harmony – the ancient and modern; rural and urban; east and west; give (dakha) and take (brakha) all seamlessly coexisting in their philosophy (svitohlyad) and music.
Fittingly, my first night with these talented musicians was spent viewing a Fringe Festival performance by the Urban Myth Theatre entitled Also a Mirror – a play ostensibly about dementia but also one in which young actors mirror the lives of the elderly and explore both the joys and anguish that life has to offer.
Just as I thought I was getting a handle on the symbiosis inherent in chaos, two cars collided as we stepped outside, right in front of us.
Day Two
African, Maori, Celtic, Papuan, Indian, Pakistani, Chinese, Sudanese, Egyptian, US, U.K………..and…… Ukrainian musicians all guests of Womadelaide, mingling in the salubrious setting of the Adelaide Hilton sharing an Aussie BBQ, sipping Aussie beer waiting for the traditional Aboriginal “welcome to country”. It is always a pleasure to watch the fascination that international visitors have with indigenous culture. The traditional songs and dances, and didgeridoo speak to these artists in a new and fresh voice that Australian audiences seem to have forgotten to listen to, or simply take for granted. I catch a glimpse of Marko who has worked his way to the front to be nearer the indigenous performers. He stands transfixed as he watches the didgeridoo player ply his craft, and obviously takes mental notes on how to further utilise the didgeridoo in future DakhaBrakha performances. Thoughts about the contemporary relevance of ethno music and culture are good ones to have in this chaotic world in which we live.
Day Three
Harmony night at the Hilton soon gives way to chaos as I am exposed to my first ever taste of media frenzy. Dakha Brakha, along with Mariam and Amadou from Mali, has been given the honour of performing at the official media launch of Womadelaide. Ian Scobie, director of Arts Projects Australia along with Tourism Minister John Rau, open the proceedings calling Womadelaide, “elegant and energetic, sophisticated but light-hearted and celebratory.” Speeches soon give way to my first glimpse of Dakha Brakha live.
Theatrical costumes, wedding dresses, giant fur hats, cello, accordion, wild drumming rhythms and soulful harmonies.
They finish their performance and the seemingly non stop barrage of questions from the media begins, “Tell us about ethno chaos” “Tell us about your fur hats” “How do you like Australia?” “What is ethno chaos?”
They are all here – local, national and international newspapers; on-line publications; radio journalists and cameras from every network with reporters shoving microphones in front of faces.
Photographers ask
Marko to jump,
Iryna to pout,
Nina to swirl her long gorgeous afro braids.
They ask all three to entwine themselves in the exposed roots of the giant Moreton Bay Fig tree.
Embrace. Smile.
And then jump again.
We have lots of the energetic, the light-hearted, and the celebratory.
But we are also getting the elegant and sophisticated as Nina and Iryna pose for as many photos as the cameramen ask for, while Marko patiently and professionally answers all questions. He even has time for the small gathering of journalists from the local Ukrainian media who are obviously not used to the frenetic pace that professional journalists create.
My head feverishly jumps from English to Ukrainian – Ukrainian to English and the music journalist from The Australian wants to ask more questions about fur hats but all I can think of is that line from my favourite Psychedelic Furs song, “these cars collide”.
The band members are exhausted, and Georgie, their minder and I suggest that the antidote for this chaos is ethno and the perfect place to find it is at Tandanya, the National Aboriginal Cultural Institute. Marko has always been fascinated by Aboriginal culture ever since he bought his first didgeridoo in Kyiv of all places. Unfortunately though, most of the gallery is closed in preparation for the Come Out Youth Arts Festival, so I need to think quickly and do an unforgivably pretentious name drop, and say that these are not ordinary tourists; they are DakhaBrakha, a Ukrainian band performing at Womadelaide. “You know, the ones they had the full page article on in Thursday’s paper. They did the Womadelaide media launch today; you’ll see their faces on all of the television channels.” The mere mention of performers at Womadelaide, makes doors that were inaccessible, suddenly open. We are given an insight into a work in progress as Reko Rennie, an urban artist with strong political views about Aboriginal identity shows us the masterpiece in the making that he is preparing for the Come Out Festival. Meanwhile, Nina and Iryna are enjoying a wonderful exchange with Stephanie, a Ngarrangeri craftswoman from the Coorong region, who also has a passion for collecting and preserving the stories and crafts of the local indigenous people. It never ceases to amaze me how people find each other and that language is not always a barrier. Marko, who is also passionate about design and installation art, seems to have found a soul mate in Reko Rennie, while Nina and Iryna who spend so much time travelling to remote Ukrainian villages collecting songs and stories, naturally gravitate towards Stephanie. All of the artists in the room, Ukrainian and Aboriginal, share that common thread of deep respect for the traditional. More importantly they are artists who comfortably throw folklore into a contemporary and urban setting and watch new and exciting masterpieces develop.
Back at the Botanic Park, Womadelaide is about to begin. We miss the Aboriginal Welcome because Marko and I are spirited off to the on site Womadelaide radio studio, to have an interview with the erudite Roger Holdsworth. The obligatory questions about wedding dresses, fur hats and ethno chaos are thankfully dispensed with early. Roger is more interested in the place of folklore in a contemporary society, and the role that performers play in working towards fairer societies. Marko is right at home here talking about the relevance and value of art.
It is straight to DakhaBrakha’s workshop after that, and despite the fact that the band is programmed against one of the mainstream drawcards, Angus and Julia Stone, a good sized crowd gathers. The workshop stage, nestled away from the main stages adjacent to a running creek with ducks and frogs, is the perfect setting for folklore. Marko, Nina and Iryna tell the audience about their passion for collecting traditional songs from the villages and then burst into exquisite
a cappella harmonies sung in the full, open voiced, traditional style. Then they throw Japanese taiko, Indian raga, hip–hop, trip-hop, and Soweto street rhythms at these Ukrainian folk songs. This metamorphosis of styles is intoxicating. Sitting on stage with the band as their interpreter, I find the energy coming from the performers invigorating, and am excited to be observing at close hand a forging of a new Ukrainian musical identity which is comfortably rooted in the past yet swaggeringly confident with the present. Well after the performance, the audience ask question after question, and like me, are left wanting more.
Day Four
Apart from a few afternoon commitments at the festival, there are no concerts scheduled for today, so after a long Ukrainian winter, where else would you go other than the beach? I quickly discover that these guys actually have a great sense of humour as they re-enact scenes from Mr Bean’s Holiday on the foreshore of Henley Beach. Their insightful sense of parody allows me to contemplate the giant fur hats and wedding dresses in a new light. Even Iryna, the manager who has been so efficient, has let her hair down and is thoroughly relaxed.
The obligatory kangaroos and koalas are next, but we make a small diversion to the Ukrainian Church on the way to the hills. Father Taras, who is mending the garage roof, comes down to show the visitors the elegant icons in the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Marko, Iryna and Nina spontaneously find themselves underneath the giant cupola and chandelier (pauk), and without any prompting, sing one of the songs they presented at last night’s workshop. Their harmonies are divine as they sing a quiet, introspective song normally sung at Christmas. Although it’s not really a carol in the strict sense of the word, it is a personal, privately sung prayer in which the ominous journey facing Mary and child is reflected in the hopes and tribulations of humanity. I look across at Father Taras whose eyes are moist, and we all realise that this is a sublimely beautiful moment.
From the sublime to the well……how many people can honestly say that the first live kangaroos that they have ever seen in their natural habitat would be mating? Yet this amorous couple is what greeted Nina, Iryna, Marko and Iryna in the grounds of Cleland National Park. It didn’t take long to find less energetic native animals to pat and feed.
DAY FIVE
The Ukrainian Hall is home away from home for the local Ukrainian community and “at home” is exactly how Dakha Brakha felt on Sunday morning. A number of Ukrainian organisations prepared a Ukie mid morning reception which had the things Ukrainians love – lots of warm hospitality, lots of singing and lots of food and drink. Nina and Iryna did not hold back, letting out one song after another and then leading the charge in crowd favourites like, “Marusia raz, dva, tre” and “Oi chorna ya se chorna”. Dakha Brakha shared their limited free time generously with the local Ukrainian community, and won many hearts in return.
A very large crowd gathered to hear DakhaBrakha perform the first of their two concerts. All four members of the group are meticulous in their preparation. Iryna, the tour manager, helps the sound technician get results that are crisp and clean. Years of touring Europe, North America and Asia shows in the confidence the band exudes. This is their zone and they obviously love the stage. The show begins and they know how to work an audience and switch from silky smooth harmonies to frenetic rhythms with ease. Nina with her infectious smile plays cello in a style that alternates from classically smooth vibrato, to a Velvet Underground edge, to chunky grunge. Iryna is a powerhouse as she belts out the rhythms on the darabukha and djembe– but it is her wonderful “narodny” or soulful folk voice which is at times strikingly similar to that of the Ukrainian folk legend, Nina Matvienko, which captivates. Marko could easily be the front man for Radiohead or DeVotchka with his at times, falsetto and at other times harmoniously blending voice. The audience is mesmerised, entranced, swayed and then jump to their feet in wild frenzied dancing. Their standing ovation and whistles say the same thing that I’m thinking. I expected these guys to be good – but they are really good.
After the concert the band are summoned to the V Music tent to sign their CD’s only to find out that every one of their CD’s in the store has been sold. I have never seen a Ukrainian band spend nearly an hour giving out autographs to an Australian audience before.
Day Six
Womadelaide is easily one of the best outdoor concert events in Australia. Iryna, the manager, has no hesitation in calling it one of the best music festivals that she has been to.
It’s easy to get caught up in the colour, fun, food, stalls and performances that engulf your every sense. The quality of performers is extraordinary and you can freely walk from stage to stage and take in mainstream Aria Award winning artists, Mongolian punk, dub, rap, ska, reggae, blues, trance, Afro rock, Celtic folk, Afro–Celt, throat singing, Indigenous, Indie, Indian, Pakistani qwalli, Euro-gypsy, Scrap Metal percussion, Papuan dancers, dance theatre, stilt walkers, giant puppets and …. Ukrainian ethno chaos. After all, there are 500 artists from 30 countries entertaining 85,000 people.
Another fantastic crowd gathers for DakhaBrakha’s final performance. There are many here who have come to see them for a second or even third time but the great diversity of people in the audience is what I find most satisfying. Dreadlocks, multi coloured hair, conventional cuts, expensive trendy cuts, the bald and thinning, bank managers, public servants, performers, the very young and very old, students and teachers, rebels and rule makers, even the Premier of South Australia are part of this very large crowd that has gathered to see DakhaBrakha play. A sizeable group of Ukrainians, some of them waving Ukrainian flags are also here. They have all heard that DakhaBrakha put on a good show and they aren’t disappointed. Nina’s cello playing is at its soulful best, Iryna bashes the percussion instruments til her hands blister and bleed, Marko as always is engaging with his accordion playing and singing. The infectious smiles from the performers and abundant energy are as significant as the quality of musicianship. The harmonies are powerful and the crowd jumps to their feet and dance as soon as the rhythm becomes infectious.
Dakha give, and the audience take. The audience gives and the performers Brakha.
It all makes sense. The coming together of a wide range of people from a wide range of backgrounds in a common ground; the coming together of a wide range of musical styles within the common framework of Ukrainian folk seems to work remarkably well. Ethno chaos or ethno harmony call it what you will, but one thing you can’t deny is that what everyone saw on stage was a bucket load of fun.
After the show, its time for more interviews and time to reflect; but the mundane is as much a part of the reality of theatre and performance as are the dizzy heights. One of these is packing up and putting the instruments and costumes onto the golf buggy for taking away to storage. Normally this is an uneventful exercise, except that today the buggy driver with the back of the stage just behind him rapidly reverses, instead of slowly going forward. Marko, who has just placed the costume bag with the giant fur hats in it onto the back of the buggy, suddenly becomes Andriy Shevchenko dodging a Manchester defender as in Dynamo Kyiv’s famous victory last night.
So, my metaphor is all wrong – this car does not collide.
Ethno chaos is not about collisions at all. It is partly that, but a whole lot more, in a style that is truly evolving.
This is the beauty of what DakhaBrakha do; they are constantly evolving and dodge any attempts to nail them down.
In the post concert interview with SBS radio, Marko half jokingly remarks that DakhaBrakha might call their next album “Adelaide” partly because of how much they have learnt and recharged; and how much more their music will evolve as a result of performing at this truly remarkable festival called WOMADelaide.
Rostyslav Becker
Another report with photos can be read at:
DakhaBrakha website http://www.dakhabrakha.com.ua/eng/title/237
