DakhaBrakha set to perform concert that was a year in the making

The final performance of the 2018-19 Fine Arts Programming schedule has been a couple years in the making.

But it should be worth the wait. DakhaBrakha will bring its unique Ukrainian folk-rock-circus-punk sound to the stage at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 6, at the Stephen B. Humphrey Theater, Saint John’s University. The concert wraps up the season series at the College of Saint Benedict and SJU.

DakhaBrakha was originally scheduled to perform on April 20, 2018, at CSB’s Gorecki Family Theater. However, the group had to cancel its entire spring 2018 tour.

The group is good to go this time around. DakhaBrakha – which means give and take in the old Ukrainian language - is a world-music quartet from Kyiv, Ukraine. Reflecting fundamental elements of sound and soul, they create a world of unexpected new music.

The group began in 2004 at the Kyiv Center of Contemporary Art by the avant-garde theater director Vladyslav Troitskyi. Theater work has left its mark on the group’s performances — their shows have never been staged without scenic effects.

In 2014, the band performed at the annual Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee. In a preview of the group, the music website No Country for New Nashville wrote that “the band’s music is based on traditional Ukrainian folk music that is backed by a diverse and unique base of world music rhythm. 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 the culture of their homeland.”

It worked. Rolling Stone Magazine hailed DakhaBrakha as the “Best Breakout” at the festival.

“DakhaBrakha went into Bonnaroo as unknowns but ended up with one of the most receptive crowds of the weekend. They got cheers for mournful accordion and apocalyptic cello sawing. Animal noises and bird whistles and howls got the audience to return the favor, turning the tent into a happy menagerie,” the magazine wrote.

DakhaBrakha has also wowed audiences at two other well-known festivals - the Glastonbury Festival in England in 2016, and the Fingerlakes Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance in Trumansburg, New York, in 2017 and 2018.

There’s also one other unique factor to their show – their clothes.

“The group’s three female vocalists, Iryna Kovalenko, Olena Tsybulska and Nina Garanetska, wear towering hats made of black lamb’s wool that make you think of old-world farmers roaming the Ukrainian countryside,” wrote Allison Herrera on the website PRI.org. “Pair that with the long, white dresses topped with chunky, beaded necklaces.

“It’s quite a fashion statement and suits their unique and beautiful blend of traditional Ukrainian folk music and punk rock – a sound they describe as ‘ethno chaos.’ ”

Herrera also notes one other message the group explores – feminism and the plight of Ukrainian women. Many women in the Ukraine are stay at home moms, don’t have a career and are often abused.

“Today, more (Ukrainian) women are providing for themselves and their families. And that’s what DakhaBrakha’s music is all about – being a part of that change,” Herrera wrote.

Tickets are $27 for adults, $24 for seniors and $20 for CSB/SJU faculty and staff. Youth and students (with ID) get in for $15, and CSB/SJU student tickets are $10.

For tickets, call the Benedicta Arts Center Box Office at 320-363-5777 or order online.

This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

The event is sponsored by Times Media, The Club and John and Maryanne Mahowald.