DakhaBrakha: Dreams of the Lost Road

The opening concert at this year’s festival will be truly spectacular. From the milieu surrounding the “DAKH” Centre of Contemporary Arts in Kiev, Ukraine, comes the group DakhaBrakha, who will enthral the audience with 3D laser, video animation, dancers, experimental theatre, references to Gogol and a musical fireworks display. The group describes itself as an “ethno-chaos band” and combines Ukrainian folk music, Indian percussion, traditional rhythm instruments from Australia, a cello, harmonica and accordion – to name just a few.

In an interview with the website “Welcome to Ukraine”, DakhaBrakha says that they are not traditionalists, but instead want to transform Ukrainian folk music into something new and different, and point to minimalist composers Philip Glass and Michael Nyman as their source of inspiration. Yet even though their music has minimalistic qualities, DakhaBrakha will create an overall sensual experience that can only be described as maximalist to the highest degree when they join forces with director Vlad Troitsky to present “Dreams of the Lost Road” in Oslo.