I have in my house a wall-to-wall bookcase full of CD's and vinyl. Modern pop & rock music being what they are, around 90% of that stuff is in the English language. The rest is bundled together in a section that's arranged not by genre or chronology, as I've done with the rest, but geographically. Browsing through that shelf is like taking a mental trip around the world. I must admit that these days I spend more time watching the horror show of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and less time listening to music, but something made me check the North-Eastern Europe shelf for an appropriate CD to listen to on the car ride to work, and I came out with this album. The first thing one should know about it is that, despite the folkloric cover, and the use of the Ukrainian language and instruments, this was actually recorded by a British group: the first recording sessions were produced in 1989 by legendary UK DJ John Peel, and featured Leeds post-punk/indie group The Wedding Present (WP) and guests (singer/violinist Len Liggins and mandolin player Roman Remeynes). Later, WP's Ukrainian-born guitarist Peter Solowka decided to leave his old band and team up with Liggins and Remeynes, dedicating themselves to pursuing that folk-rock direction with The Ukrainians full time. I am no expert in Ukrainian folk, and couldn't tell you if this is even close to the real thing. I think that very few in the West can, especially given the fact that a lot of what passes here as Russian folklore (cossack dances, for instance) actually comes from Ukraine. The timing of their debut album's creation is also significant: it was released in 1991, the year Ukraine gained its independence, and The Soviet Union and other "communist" multi-national states disintegrated. Ukrainians, including expats abroad, were experiencing a cultural awakening after decades of living under the shadow of Russia. There was an ugly side to it: in order to find distinctly Ukrainian role models/heroes, the heads of that new country turned to an early 20th century nationalist/fascist movement for inspiration. This paved the way for the legitimization of fascism in Ukrainian society that gave free reign to neo-nazi paramilitary groups, who in turn provided Putin with a convenient excuse for his barbaric invasion. On the other side of the coin, you have this beautiful music that testifies to the inner poetry of the Ukrainian soul. Opener "Zavtra" is a good example: starting up with a wistful vocal accompanied by accordion and violin, it speeds up in celebratory matter. "Tebe Zhdu" is another song that begins as a ballad but breaks into an epic chorus, while "Pereyidu" and "Son" are a couple of lyrical ballads. "Slava Kobzarya" is more similar to Western folk rock, and probably the only track where the band's history in Indie rock is discernible. These tracks come from their debut The Ukrainians (1991), while the rest of this compilation comes from their second album Vorony (1993). "Chi Znayesh Ty?" is a short tune with choral vocals that sounds very authentic to my ears, while the frantic pace and violins of "Shehe Raz" sound Celtic, almost Pogues-like. "Nadia Pishla" is a slow atmospheric song, "Doroha" a short instrumental, and "Rospryahaite" one of the few traditional folk songs. The rest are mostly band originals, although it's hard to tell the difference when confronted with excellent authentic-sounding compositions like "Dvi Lebidky" and "De Ye Moya Mila?". I guess it doesn't matter anyway. We should enjoy the music for what it is: a work of love by talented musicians who, whether of Ukrainian descent or not, are clearly enamored of the region's rich culture. I don't know whether there are better introductions to Ukrainian folk out there, but this winsome collection certainly worked for an eager music traveler like me. I can't imagine it turning off even the most uninitiated to world music...
**** for Zavtra, Rospryahaite, Dvi Lebidky, De Ye Moya Mila?
*** for Slava Kobzarya, Chi Znayesh Ty?, Shehe Raz, Nadia Pishla, Doroha, Pereyidu, Tebe Zhdu, Son
As you probably have guessed, this week's album choice is influenced by the human tragedy unfolding in Ukraine: the war, death, and what we Greeks call prosfygia, the state of being uprooted from your home and becoming a refugee. The experience of prosfygia has become part of our collective DNA: at least one third of modern Greeks are descended from refugees from Asia Minor, and watching the news from Ukraine brings the stories of our grandparents (mine included) to life once more. So, obviously I have been thinking about this war a lot, and wasn't sure whether I should put my thoughts down in this music blog, or not. I decided to do it, but if you've only come here for the album review you may want to stop reading now because what I have to say may annoy you. I believe this story has not one, but two villains: the first one is obviously Putin, using extreme violence to dominate the part of the world he thinks of as his own back yard - which, of course, it isn't. It's someone else's home, and he should get the fuck out of there! The other one is (surprise!) us: the West, or -if you like- the U.S.A., E.U. and their allies, trying to dominate not one part of the world but all of it. In the 3 decades since we won the Cold War, we launched full scale invasions on Iraq and Afghanistan, a major bombing campaign against Yugoslavia as well as some minor ones, we have punished countries with severe economic sanctions, and stoked the fires of countless armed conflicts in order to depose governments we didn't like - most recently in Syria and Libya. We did it as easily as if they were nothing more than enemy pawns in a chess game. Now we show righteous anger against Putin for breaking international law, as if it wasn't us who stood in front of the U.N. presenting fake evidence to justify the invasion of a sovereign country that presented no threat to us. We can, at least, agree on one thing: The Ukrainian people and president Zelensky, despite not being blameless for the current mess, are still the heroes of this specific story. I would gladly join the majority of my fellow Westerners in cheering my support, and in demanding that our governments welcome Ukrainian refugees, and that they support the country financially, with humanitarian and developmental help, and defensive equipment. I will draw the line at waving the Ukrainian flag, which seems to be a very fashionable thing to do nowadays - I am no flagwaver; following flags instead of thinking for yourself is how wars start. But I understand it, everybody wants to get behind a good cause. It makes people feel good about themselves, and it costs nothing. Where I will most definitely draw the line is at arming one side of the conflict with lethal weapons. This is nothing less than waging war by proxy! I'm a pacifist, I believe there are only two justifiable kinds of war: fighting fascism anywhere you find it, and defending your country from a foreign attack. Which, of course, means that Ukrainian defenders are fighting a just war. They have every right, maybe even obligation, to try to kill their attackers But the Russians are not threatening us, so should we really take part in this war? To those of us with a shallow way of thinking, arming Ukraine must seem like helping a smaller kid fight off a bully. But it isn't! What we are literally doing is helping the soldiers on one side kill soldiers on the other side. Even if we do not believe in the words "thou shalt not kill", are we O.K. with killing thousands of young people who are somebody's fathers, sons, or lovers? Should we not try to stop the war instead of prolonging it? It's obvious that, even with our help, the Ukrainian army can not push the Russians all the way back, it will just provoke them into using more violence and directing it towards the civilian population to overcome its resistance. It would stand to reason that the best course for everyone is negotiations, even if that means that Ukraine may need to let go of some provinces whose population may prefer to be independent anyway. Of course aggression should not be vindicated, so the international community must make sure that the war has a steep cost for Russia as well. But peace would not work that well for our interests, would it? American senators gave their game away from day one when, pre-supposing Ukraine's defeat, they talked about sponsoring a long-winded insurrection. What they really want isn't peace but a prolonged war that will take a huge financial, human, and political toll on Russia, and eventually lead to the regime crumbling down and allow them to replace Putin with a Western puppet like Boris Yeltsin. It worked so well with the Soviet Union, so why not try it again? We won't even have to do any of the fighting ourselves. Now, you may argue that, if fighting fascism anywhere is a justifiable war, then maybe fighting someone as aggressive and undemocratic as Putin can also be justified even if his aggression is not currently targeted on us. But that would just mean that you don't understand what fascism is: more than just a violent and oppressive ideology, fascism is war on humanity itself. If it ever wins, there won't be any human beings left, only wolves and sheep. As terrible as this war is, it's no different to any other war in the history of the world: stronger nations prey forever on the weaker ones, and the prize is power, money, land, or slaves. Your country and mine have been the aggressors at different times in their history, and usually we sit back and watch idly while it happens all around us, unless it affects our interests. Am I wrong, or have we also moved to protect the Tigray from Ethiopia? Or Kurds from Turkey? No, Erdogan may be as undemocratic, corrupt, aggressive against his neighbors as Putin is, his army may be occupying Northern Cyprus (which, incidentally, is European territory) and invade Kurdish area in Syria at will, but he's our ally, isn't he? What about Saudi Arabia's war against Yemen? Of course not - the Saudis may have similar ideology to the Taliban, but they are Taliban with money and oil wells. I won't even breach the subject of Israel: Israel may occupy Arab lands, they may bulldoze Palestinian homes to build houses for Jewish settlers, they may bomb a row of buildings just to kill one so-called "terrorist" - but speaking against Israeli policies is anti-Semitism, and I'm no anti-Semite; so I'll just watch the carnage and mumble that Israel has the right to defend itself. But I've taken up too much of your time, so even though there's a lot more to be said about the war in Ukraine, I'll stop here with a plea: keep on pressuring Russia to stop the war, demand the fair treatment of minorities whether they are on "our" side or not, support the civilian population and their defenders in every non-lethal way possible, open your arms to refugees whether they are black or white, Christian or Muslim. Stop waving flags, stop getting caught up in the bullshit "us (the good/liberal/democratic West) versus them (the evil/autocratic Russia/China/Iran)" worldview, which the media keep forcing on us. We are all together in this. Our planet is a sinking ship, but instead of working together towards saving it, we are fighting each other. And stop saying "it's their fault, they started it" because they didn't. They are caught up in an endless power struggle, just as we are. Only when we recognize our own role in this mess and pressure our governments to stop vying for world domination and start working towards peace can we hope for a better tomorrow.
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