Fabulous sonic universe you are creating, so full of our common nordic hemisphere emotions, bravo, bravissimo, love & light from per

 Love what you make so much! brings me so much comfort🌺your music is the most beautiful thing 

ROOM OF WORDS (2023)
MARIA MATIASHOVA

music Oleksii Podat 
voices Karina Piliugina, Verona
recording, mixing Dmytro Oleksiuk
translation Roksolana Mashkova
graphic design Yaroslava Kovalchuk
font design Ivan Tsanko
special thanks Dima Tolkachov, Ihor Babaiev, Nika Popova, Nastia Kolodka, Vladyslava Kozlenko

Room of words is an installation created in Kyiv at the beginning of 2023. Almost exactly one year after the start of the russian full-scale invasion, the young artist Maria Matiashova decides to share a testimony of an invisible process that Ukrainian people are going through on a daily basis, a process that does not only deal with physical circumstances, but also with language improvement and development. The research started out of necessity and became the bearer of a great reflection on the role of language in her personal geography at this moment in history. In the process of selecting words to record, the artist identified key functions of language for her:

- language can protect, like the words used as passwords to easily enter certain areas of the city at the military checkpoints in Kyiv, key-words underlining on one side the belonging and on the other unveiling the possibility to distinguish through wrong pronunciation the enemies; 

- language is play and exchange: like a child's game of passing the ball and exchanging words in association; 

- language is memory: a childhood memory from which to distance oneself if this is the language of the occupier;

- language is a political statement of resistance and also an instrument of oppression. 

Without any intention to relate her research only to war, the artist tries finally to define language as a source of aesthetic experiences creating a contemporary Manifesto of Ukrainian language. The words selected were chosen for their musicality and evocative characteristics, many are synonyms of more common words, some are words that were repressed during Soviet times and deserve the freedom to be expressed again. The aim is to inspire and reestablish the use of those words as an act of love, beauty and revolution. 

As Maria Matiashova said, 'Room of Words' is a play without a plot. It is a contrast between the smooth sound of Ukrainian words and the painful underlying reality of its meanings. Like in a Pandora's box, the spectator can choose to enter the room of meanings and discover the hidden truth of a life during war, of a struggle that this time has the sound of the Ukrainian language, but tends to symbolize and describe the characteristics of the universal struggle of human nature.

room of words - maria matiashova / music by oleksii podat

Svitlana Nianio — Transilvania Smile, 1994

Release title: Transilvania Smile, 1994
Release subtitle: Original Soundtrack For The Dance-Theatre Performance
Release artist: Svitlana Nianio
Release date: 2023-08-04
Label: Shukai
Catalog: Shukai 8
Formats: 12” LP / Digital
File under: Folk, Classical

Linear notes:
Svitlana Okhrimenko (artist name: Svitlana Nianio) is a Ukrainian artist, musician, and signer. She is one of the most prominent representatives of the independent music scene of Kyiv in the late 1980s — early 90s. She has repeatedly recorded and performed in collaboration with other musicians and bands, such as Oleksandr Yurchenko, Sugar White Death (Cukor Bila Smert’), Ivanov Down, GeeNerve & Taran, and Blemish. Svitlana still performs and publishes new recordings today.
“Transilvania Smile” is one of the first solo works recorded in 1994. During this time, Svitlana repeatedly visited Germany, where she had the experience of playing in parks and on the streets, gathering contacts of the local art scene. Her cooperation with the international choreographic group Pentamonia, based in Cologne and consisting of several girls who performed in theaters, took part in various performances, and were engaged in music. They met in the 1990s during joint performances with "Sugar-White Death." After that, they corresponded, and the idea of doing something together arose. Svitlana attended several of their performances, which inspired her to write music for a new project, and the band members helped to realize their creative ideas. Later, they started rehearsing together.
The name “Transilvania Smile” was invented by the project participants, and it symbolized the mold on the mirror and the reflection of a smiling vampire. However, shortly before the premiere, they changed it to “Firefox”, as the participants actively used flashlights and the play of light and shadows in the scenography.
The premiere occurred in the local Urania theater, previously a gallery. Isabel Bartensein directed the choreography, and Svitlana played, sang, and improvised. She said it was an excellent experience for her and the band. Besides Cologne, they also performed in Aachen.
Later, Michael Springer offered Svitlana to record this material in his "Phanton" studio. They had already worked together and recorded music for their project (Svitlana Okhrimenko / Phanton). Michael was also interested in the Ukrainian independent scene and participated in the creation of several compilations that featured bands from Kyiv and Kharkiv. Svetlana played the piano and harmonium in the studio and also sang. After the recording, the material was never released in its entirety. Two compositions appeared on the cassette compilation “Shovaisia” (Hide) in 1995, some episodes were re-recorded for the “Kytytsi” album in 1999, but for a long time, the full version of this recording remained practically unknown to listeners and was kept in Svitlana's and Michael’s archives.
This album is one of the most personal and insightful works of Svitlana Nianio from the 90s, which you can now get to know in its original form and sound.
Tracklist:
Side A (45RPM)
Episode III
Side B (33RPM)
Episode I
Episode II
Episode III
Episode IV
Episode V
Episode VI
Episode VII


Credits:
Original Soundtrack for the Dance-Theatre Performance “Transilvania Smile” by Svitlana Nianio
Recorded in phantonstudio, Cologne, 1994—1995
Mastered by Michael Springer (phantonstudio)
Shukai team: Dmytro Nikolaienko, Dmytro Prutkin and Sasha Tsapenko
Liner notes by Vlad Yakovlev
Graphic design by (DN)
Svitlana’s stage photo by Christiane Bowinkelmann
Pentamonia Dance Group photos by Olav Faustmann
Special thanks to Michael Springer (phantonstudio) and Guido Erfen

Shukai 8
www.shukai.org
© ℗ Shukai / Svitlana Nianio
2023

Transilvania Smile

Episode III

Svitlana Nianio - Episode III (Transilvania Smile, 1994)

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Ти приснилась мені сьогодні /Dzisiaj pzyszłaś do mnie w nocy   1995 / Come Angel

Ой Чорна Хмара (Black Cloud is Coming)

Come Angel / Tsymbrovsky 1995

Now available: Svitlana Nianio & Oleksandr Yurchenko's 'Znayesh Yak? Rozkazhy' ('Know How? Tell Me'). Recorded in an abandoned park in Kiev in 1995, this is the first official release of 'Znayesh Yak? Rozkazhy' outside of the duo's native Ukraine, and is presented in conjunction with Glasgow's Night School Records.

Order the 12" vinyl edition here: tinyurl.com/vw3lgpe

Digital only here: tinyurl.com/rzk2ehc

All orders will ship after 21.02.2020.

Svitlana Nianio and Oleksandr Yurchenko are musicians with a long history in the still-mysterious Kiev Underground. Nianio’s first group Cukor Bela Smert [Sugar, The White Death] were active from the late 80’s through to the early 90’s, and following an intense period of touring, collaboration, experimentation and a string of mixtapes and self-published recordings, Nianio’s first official solo album ‘Kytytsi’ was released in 1999 by Poland’s Koka Records. Oleksandr Yurchenko, a longtime collaborator and a pivotal figure in the Kiev music scene, was instrumental in creating the Novaya Scena, a loose conglomerate of artists who encouraged each other to excavate both the sounds of the West and Ukrainian tradition. ‘Znayesh Yak? Rozkazhy’ (‘Know How? Tell Me’) is the duo’s most fully realised collaboration, an enchanting, complete world in which Yurchenko’s instrumentation and playfulness with form frames Nianio’s otherworldly soprano, recalling Liz Fraser steeped in contrapuntal melody and hymnal improvisation. Originally made available on a self-released cassette in 1996 (re-issued in 2017 by Ukraine’s Delta Shock label) where the album was twinned with ‘Lisova Kolekciya’ (re-issued on LP in 2017 by Skire) this is the debut release of ‘Znayesh Yak? Rozkazhy’ outside of Ukraine.

Recorded in an abandoned park in Kiev during a fertile period for artists and musicians following the collapse of the Soviet Union, ‘Znayesh Yak? Rozkazhy’ sees Nianio and Yurchenko combine Casio keyboard, hammered dulcimer, percussion, and Nianio’s unmistakeable soprano vocalisations to create music sympathetic to the specific locations in which they chose to record. Yurchenko’s contribution is perhaps more present on this recording than anything else we have heard from the duo. His percussive dulcimer playing provides the basis on which Nianio can weave delicate keyboard lines while playfully contorting her voice, shifting from a low register reminiscent of Nico to what could be perceived as the call of a bird or an animal in distress. Whatever the intent, the effect is haunting and beautiful in equal measure.

There’s a prevailing earthiness on the recordings, found in the warm hiss of the lo-fi means of recording or the grinding, unspecified sounds that occasionally accompany the melody, like drones created on the fly by hands trying to keep warm in the ice. A prevailing mood of fragility and beauty seeps from these melodies, delicate moments of clarity spun by the two musicians. ‘Znayesh Yak? Rozkazhy’ is a dream spun in twilight, a crystalline, private world where the listener feels both alien and welcome.

Recorded in Kiev, Ukraine, May 1995
Produced by Svitlana Nianio & Oleksandr Yurchenko
Mastered by John Hannon, 2018

Artwork by Svitlana Nianio

Хмєя (Khmeya) (s.nianio & >llkutan & A.Strakhov)

s.nianio

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