# DakhaBrakha

DakhaBrakha are a Ukrainian folk music quartet which combines the musical styles of several ethnic groups. They were a winner of the Sergey Kuryokhin Contemporary Art Award in 2009 and the Shevchenko National Prize in 2020.
DakhaBrakha are a project of the Dakh Contemporary Arts Center, led by Vladyslav Troitskyi and born as a live theater music crew. Troitskyi continues to be the band's producer. Members of DakhaBrakha participate in the centre's other projects, notably in the all-female cabaret project Dakh Daughters, as well as in the annual Gogolfest festival.

## Name etymology

The group's name derives from Ukrainian verbs Давати, 'Give' and Брати, 'Take', while also playing on the Art Centre's name "Dakh" (literally "roof" in Ukrainian).

## Members

* Marko Halanevych – vocals, goblet drum, tabla, didgeridoo, harmonica, accordion, cajón, jaw harp
* Olena Tsybulska – vocals, percussion
* Iryna Kovalenko – vocals, djembe, flute, buhay, piano, ukulele, zgaleyka, accordion, percussion
* Nina Harenetska – vocals, cello, percussion
All of the members except Marko Halanevych are graduates of the Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts. Nina Garenetska also takes part in the Dakh Daughters project.
* Nina Harenetska
* Olena Tsybulska
* Marko Halanevych
* Iryna Kovalenko

## Discography

* Na dobranich (На добраніч, 'Goodnight') (2005)
* Yahudky (Ягудки) (2007)
* Na mezhi (На межі) (2009)
* Light (2010)
* Khmeleva project (Хмелева project) (2012)
* The Road (Шлях) (2016)
* Alambari (2020)

## Soundtracks

* 2024 – Full soundtrack for Porcelain War (United States/Ukraine)
* 2018 – Trailer song for House 99, David Beckham's grooming brand (United Kingdom)
* 2017 – Bitter Harvest (Canada)
* 2017 – Mavka: The Forest Song (Ukraine)
* 2017 – Fargo (United States)

## Origin

DakhaBrakha were originally a daughter project of Ukrainian the avant-garde theater Dakh and its artistic director Vladislav Troitsky.

## Festivals

DakhaBrakha performed in June 2014 at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival held in Manchester, Tennessee. DakhaBrakha were invited to participate through the globalFEST showcase. They were proclaimed by Rolling Stone as "Best Breakout" of the festival.
They played at the Glastonbury Festival on the West Holts. They performed in July 2017 and July 2018 at the Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance held in Trumansburg, New York. In 2017, they performed at the South by Southwest festival (SXSW) in Austin, Texas. DakhaBrakha performed at the 2017 Sziget Festival in Hungary. In 2018, the group performed with Latvian group Tautumeitas at Latvia's World Music Festival Porta 2018. In 2019, they performed at the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts in Manhattan.
They performed during the first weekend of the 2022 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in New Orleans, Louisiana.
DakhaBrakha played a well-received set at the Festival International de Louisiane in Lafayette, Louisiana, on April 30, 2022.

## Film appearances

In 2023, when the Ukrainian animation Mavka: The Forest Song (based on the play The Forest Song by Lesya Ukrainka) was released. The audience saw an animated version of the band members as characters of the animation. Soundtracks of the Mavka animated film also belong to DakhaBrakha due to their ethnic motives required by the film's plot.
"The team recreated the ethno dance and other ceremonial elements with the help of experts from the Ivan Honchar Museum National Center for Folk Culture. The music for this episode is an authentic vesnianka performed by the DakhaBrakha band: the musicians not only created the song for Mavka, but also appear in the cartoon as Lukash's friends, village musicians"
In 2024, their music was featured as the soundtrack for Ukrainian/American documentary antiwar film Porcelain War with the artists giving permission for the filmmakers to use their entire discography including unreleased music. The credits scene also includes a recorded live performance of their song Vesna.

## Other performances

* In January 2014, the group performed for NPR's series, NPR Music Front Row.
* In January 2014, the group performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC.
* In April 2015, the group performed for NPR's Tiny Desk concert series.
* In 2017, the group performed for radio station, KEXP.
* In 2021, the group performed for NPR's Tiny Desk (home) concert series.
* On April 24, 2023, the group performed at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg.
* On March 30, 2024, the group performed at the Farquhar Theatre at the University of Victoria.

## Influence on other artists

* A portion of the song "Vesna" (Весна) from the band's 2009 album Na mezhi (На межі) appears in the first three minutes of Aki Onda's 2023 album Transmissions From The Radio Midnight as part of a Hungarian broadcast captured by Onda.