DakhaBrakha are a project of the Dakh Contemporary Arts Center, led by Vladyslav Troitskyi and born as a live theater music crew. Troitskyi continues to be the band's producer. Members of DakhaBrakha participate in the centre's other projects, notably in the all-female cabaret project Dakh Daughters, as well as in the annual Gogolfest festival.
Name etymology
The group's name derives from Ukrainian verbs Давати, 'Give' and Брати, 'Take', while also playing on the Art Centre's name "Dakh" (literally "roof" in Ukrainian).
DakhaBrakha were originally a daughter project of Ukrainian the avant-garde theater Dakh and its artistic director Vladislav Troitsky.[9]
Festivals
DakhaBrakha performed in June 2014 at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival held in Manchester, Tennessee. DakhaBrakha were invited to participate through the globalFEST showcase. They were proclaimed by Rolling Stone as "Best Breakout" of the festival.[10]
In 2023, when the Ukrainian animationMavka: The Forest Song (based on the play The Forest Song by Lesya Ukrainka) was released. The audience saw an animated version of the band members as characters of the animation.[17] Soundtracks of the Mavka animated film also belong to DakhaBrakha due to their ethnic motives required by the film`s plot.[18]
"The team recreated the ethno dance and other ceremonial elements with the help of experts from the Ivan Honchar Museum National Center for Folk Culture. The music for this episode is an authentic vesnianka performed by the DakhaBrakha band: the musicians not only created the song for Mavka, but also appear in the cartoon as Lukash's friends, village musicians"[19][20]
Other performances
In January 2014, the group performed for NPR's series, NPR Music Front Row.[21]
On March 30, 2024, the group performed at the Farquhar Theatre at the University of Victoria.
[29]
Influence on other artists
A portion of the song "Vesna" (Весна) from the band's 2009 album Na mezhi (На межі) appears in the first three minutes of Aki Onda's 2023 album Transmissions From The Radio Midnight[30] as part of a Hungarian broadcast captured by Onda.
^"DakhaBrakha Records Soundtrack to Mavka". MAVKA the forest song | animated feature film MAVKA. Retrieved 2023-09-13.
^"Song by Ukraine's Dakha Brakha becomes part of Fargo OST". www.unian.info. Retrieved 2023-09-13.
^""Сны потерянных дорог" – на фестивале "NET"" ["Dreams of the Lost Road" – The "NET" Festival] (in Russian). tvkultura.ru. November 23, 2009. Archived from the original on December 24, 2019. Retrieved June 20, 2014.
^"Best Breakout: Dakhabrakha Photo – 45 Best Things We Saw at Bonnaroo 2014". Rolling Stone. 2016-06-16. Retrieved 5 July 2015.
^"Glastonbury 2016 – DakhaBrakha". BBC Music Events. Retrieved 2016-06-27.
^South X Lullaby: DakhaBrakha, retrieved 2023-09-15
^Dakhabrakha | Live @ Sziget Festival 2017, retrieved 2023-09-15
^DakhaBrakha 2019 performance details Archived 2019-05-07 at the Wayback Machine, Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts
^"2022 New Orleans Jazz & HeritageFestival Music Schedule". Retrieved 2022-04-20.
^"About the project". MAVKA the forest song | animated feature film MAVKA. Retrieved 2023-09-19.
^"DakhaBrakha band recorded first tracks for Mavka. The Forest Song OST". MAVKA the forest song | animated feature film MAVKA. Retrieved 2023-09-19.
^"Автентичний образ Мавки та саундтрек-веснянка від "ДахаБраха": нове музичне відео від "Мавка. Лісова пісня"". usfa.gov.ua (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 2023-06-13.
^"CREATORS OF "MAVKA. THE FOREST SONG" ANIMATED FEATURE PRESENT A NEW SPECIAL MUSIC VIDEO FROM ONE OF THE ICONIC FILM'S SCENES OF A RITUAL SPRING DANCE". MAVKA the forest song | animated feature film MAVKA. Retrieved 2023-09-19.
^DakhaBrakha | NPR MUSIC FRONT ROW, retrieved 2023-09-15
^DakhaBrakha live at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, retrieved 2023-09-15
^DakhaBrakha: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert, retrieved 2023-09-15
^DakhaBrakha - Full Performance (Live on KEXP), retrieved 2023-09-15
^Boilen, Bob (January 16, 2021). "DakhaBrakha: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert". NPR Music: tiny desk concerts. Retrieved September 14, 2023.