Between tradition and experiment. Heinali & Yasia and Shovel Dance Collective come to Prague
Ukrainian folk and modular fusion performed by the duo Heinali & Yasia and Shovel Dance Collective, seeking a communal dimension to old songs from Ireland and Britain – two contemporary approaches to traditional music will be performed on 13 April at the New Libeň Synagogue. Each, in their own way, is finding their way to the folk tradition of their homeland and, more importantly, how to live it in the 21st century. The concert is organized by Heartnoize and the Alternativa festival.
The Hildegard Project, which consists of composer and producer Oleh Shpudeiko (Heinali) together with vocalist and actress Yasia Saienko, revisits the medieval music of Hildegard of Bingen. The Ukrainian musicians combine typical folk techniques with the sound of a modular synthesizer and come up with a reimagining of hundreds of years old songs that were already challenging to perform at the time of their creation. They required a large vocal range and full-body involvement, while their polyphonic melodies have fascinated Oleh for years, who dedicated his five-year-old album Madrigals to them. The spiritual dimension of the music and the depth of emotion contained within it comes alive again at a time when Ukraine is struggling for its existence and the need to live through the pain and move on is more pressing than ever.
Shovel Dance Collective is a nine-piece group from London that doesn’t want to treat English, Scottish and Irish folk as a fossil on display in a museum, but as an important practice of bringing groups of people with similar world views together. Their music overlaps established and experimental practices, improvisation and field recordings. Appearing on many album of the year lists, last year’s The Shovel Dance finds hidden queer history and emancipation in traditional songs, and the power of defiance that connects people across time. Rewriting the perspectives of the rich and powerful who have written history gives Shovel Dance Collective’s work a power that comes through in concert.