Kommuna Lux

Kommuna Lux (previous name - Dengi Vpered) is an ensemble of musical hooligans, all native or adopted sons of the city of Odesa, Ukraine, created in 2014. Music genre — Odesa Gangsta Folk.
==History==
The group began with performances in Odesa restaurants, creating the "Odesa gansta folk" style. The combination of music, anecdotes, interaction with listeners, real auctions, dancing on tables, and much more led to repeated performances. At first, the band consisted of three musicians: Felix Shinder (vocals), Oleg Vasyanovych (accordion, double bass), Oleg Belik (guitar).
In 2014, they decided to increase the team with like-minded musicians: Volodymyr Gitin (clarinet), Andriy Okhramovych (trumpet), Yaroslav Besh (trombone), Oleksandr Tryukachenko (drums), Yevhen Kuchurka (guitar). Oleg Vasianovych became the musical director and author of the arrangements. They began performing as a large collective with
the original name "Dengi Vpered". At the end of that summer, the band received an offer from Viktor Lykhodko to become their manager, which significantly increased the concert activity of the young band.
In the fall of 2014, the band opened the International Festival "Odesa Jazz Fest". This expanded their local popularity, and opened the way to the national scene.
In September 2015, the band released the debut video clip "Fonariki". Later that fall, they went on their first full Ukrainian tour, with a new drummer in the team, Serhiy Poltorak. Their previous drummer was unable to play in Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, and later a New Year's concert at the Philharmonic in 2016, due to a schedule conflict. “Session
drummer” Poltorak was officially invited to become part of the band.
In the spring of 2016, the band released their second video clip for the song "Amaniny and later that summer, their debut album "Gold of Ancient Odessites" appeared. In it, the musicians combine Odesa urban folklore with original music. More than two thousand visitors gathered for the debut concert in the Green Theater of Odesa, and the album itself brought wide recognition to the band.
However, freedom-loving Odesites are never in a hurry to sign contracts with music labels, and they decided to seek recognition on other continents. Thus a tour of South America (2016), collaboration with Tomato Production begins the first international tour of Europe, an international tour of Europe - 2017 (Germany, Poland, France, the Netherlands), concerts in Kazakhstan (2018), Germany (2019) took place. The band actively recorded video clips from the road, participated in films and TV shows, conducted a radio program and even published its own newspaper. After touring the US in 2019, the band presents its long-awaited second LP and announces a new phase in its creative development.
==Rebranding of the band. From “Dengi Vpered” to ”Kommuna Lux”==
In 2020, the band said goodbye to the previous vocalist and invited Bagrat Tsurkan to become their vocalist. The team even shot a video about this event in the style of a silent film. Bagrat naturally joined the team, and the debut video with his participation "Babushka Zdorova" immediately gained many thousands of views on Facebook and YouTube social networks.
In the renewed team, Volodymyr Gitin became the band's musical director. There was also a change of guitarist. Viktor Kyrylov joined the band, but the previous member Yevhen Kuchurka still remains an associate of the group. After February 24, 2022, he joined the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The team repeatedly provided material and financial support for his battalion.
The first concert with the updated line-up took place in May 2021 in an atmospheric Odesa courtyard. The program of the performance included fresh material, a new sound, colorful genre experiments and, of course, the Odesa spirit.
Manager Viktor Lykhodko continues to develop the band's concert and touring direction, despite all the changes. The band continued to cooperate with Tomato Production as a producer in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. 
In 2021 the band started a foreign tour. The renewed team with the new name "Kommuna Lux" loudly announced itself by performing at two festivals: the Ukrainian "Faine Misto" and the Hungarian Zsidó Kulturális Fesztivál. On the Hungarian festival the band managed to perform the song "Lechaim Rebbe" together with its authors, the legendary "Budapest Klezmer Band". Also, in the summer of 2021, the musicians got into the largest-scale recording of the crime romance "Vitka Shram".
2022 has become a turning point for all Ukrainians. Kommuna Lux had prepared for a major international tour, but even before February it became clear that, due to the full-scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine, the events may not happen. Even so, they pressed on with their plans for the summer tour and at the same time engaged in charity work. In particular, the team participated in a charity concert, organized by the Magic Box company, and, despite the shelling of the city, raised funds for victims of military aggression.
In total, in 2022, the team held more than 70 concerts in Ukraine and abroad, most of which were for charity. During the European tour, the music video for the song "Hutsulka Ksenia" was shot in the Swiss Alps, which the band debuted in January 2023. During their stay in Germany, in July 2022, the band recorded their third studio album, which is expected to be released in the fall of 2023. In 2023, the band, with the support of Cool Hat Records, plans to tour the USA.
==Band members==
* Bagrat Tsurkan - vocals
* Oleg Vasyanovych - accordion
* Viktor Kyrylov - guitar
* Volodymyr Gitin - clarinet
* Andrii Okhramovych - trumpet
* Yaroslav Besh - trombone
* Serhiy Poltorak - drum
* Viktor Lykhodko - director
* Denis Voytenko - sound engineer
* Oleksandr Tryukachenko - operator
==Former band members==
* Felix Shinder - vocals
* Evgeny Kuchurka - guitar
* Dmytro Svidruk - bass guitar
* Oleg Beylik - guitar
==Performance style==
The musical style of Kommuna Lux consists of street bandit folklore, Jewish folk music and Balkan rhythms. The band jokingly calls themselves the "Odesa musical cooperative". Their performance is not only about the music, because there is also plenty of stage presence. Odesa mysteries, special humor, "tricks", bidding, and uninvited guests - these combined into a unique entertainment experience, and became their special style as a business card of the whole Odesa, and later influenced international recognition.
An interesting fact is that after the appearance of vocalist Bagrat Tsurkan in the team, the band expanded its stylistic range. Now Ukrainian songs were also added to Odesa-Jewish folklore in the repertoire.
==Participation in festivals==
* Odessa Jazz Fest (Odesa, Ukraine) — spring, 2014
* Kyiv Music Market (Kyiv, Ukraine) — spring, 2015
* Taki-Da Fest (Kyiv, Ukraine) — spring, 2015
* Odessa Sea Fest (Odesa, Ukraine) — summer, 2015
* Woodstock Ukraine (Svirzh Ukraine) — summer, 2015
* Music Day in Odesa (Odesa, Ukraine) — summer, 2016
* OIFF (Odesa, Ukraine) — summer, 2017 
* Atlas Weekend (Kyiv, Ukraine) — summer, 2017
* Tzimes Market (Odesa, Ukraine) - summer, 2017
* Kyiv Klezmer Fest (Kyiv, Ukraine) — spring, 2018
* Koktebel Jazz Festival (Chornomorsk, Ukraine) — summer, 2018
* Fine misto festival (Ternopil, Ukraine) — summer, 2018 
* Sommerfestival Der Kulturen (Stuttgart, Germany) — summer, 2018 
* FolkHerbst Preisverleihung (Plauen, Germany) - Winter, 2019
* International Klezmer Festival Fürth (Fürth, Germany) — spring, 2019 
* Ethno-festival "Milky Way" (Odesa, Ukraine) — summer, 2019
* For all Odessa — summer, 2020
* Fine misto festival (Ternopil, Ukraine) — summer, 2021 
* Zsidó Kulturális Fesztivál (Budapest, Hungary) — summer, 2021
* D-Festival (Turiec, Slovakia) — summer, 2022 
* Internationales Donaufest (Ulm, Germany) — summer, 2022 
* Tollwood Festival (Munich, Germany) — summer, 2022 
* Horizonte Festival (Koblenz, Germany) — summer, 2022 
* 24th Festival of Jewish Culture "Simcha" (Wroclaw, Poland) - summer, 2022 
* Weinturm Open Air (Bad Windsheim, Germany) — summer, 2022 
* Hors Tribu Festival (Motier, Switzerland) — summer, 2022
* Buskers Festival Good morning (Neuchatel, Switzerland) — summer, 2022
* VIDOR Fesztivál (Nyiredgaza, Hungary) — summer, 2022
* Pannonica Festival (Bartsytsi village, Poland) — summer, 2022 
* 19th Festival of Jewish Culture "Singer's Warsaw" (Warsaw, Poland) — summer, 2022
* Trutnovský Jarmark (Trutnov, Czech Republic) — summer, 2022
==Newspaper==
Since the beginning of its activity, the group has been publishing its own newspaper annually. The idea to use this format and start this tradition was brought to the team by Rita Caterpillar, music manager and owner of the Caterpillar label.
The idea of a band newspaper arose because the music performed by the group appeared at a time when printed periodicals were still a main source of information. The Kommuna Lux newspaper works is mostly distributed at events of the band. In it you may read information about the band, as well as about their colorful city of Odesa. As a rule, it is published once a year right before some important tours and other activities. This tradition continues even now, so the newspaper has been published for 6 years in a row. The latest edition was in three languages (English, German and Polish) and was distributed across Europe during the 2022 tours.
==Filmography==
* "Odesa as it is. People — Events" (2016, directed by Roman Volchak, Andranik Davtian, Andrii Popovychenko) 
==Notes==
==Links Odesa folk band "Kommuna Lux"== 
===We are on Facebook===
* Facebook
===We are on Instagram===
* Іnstagram
===We are on YouTube=== 
* YouTube
==="Kommuna Lux" band===
*Odessza-Budapest klezmer Talalkozo//jegy.hu Odessza-Budapest klezmer Talalkozo (language of the text - hungarian)
* Odesa folk band "Kommuna Lux" goes on a charity tour in support of Ukraine (language of the text - russian)
* Odesa group "Kommuna Lux" presented a new video - Folga (language of the text - russian)
* The Odesa group Kommuna Luxshot a clip at the Odessa Post Office - Сulturemeter (language of the text - russian)
* The Odesa group filmed a video where they recreated Odesa of the 20s of the last century - Оdessa-life (language of the text - russian)
* In Odesa, the folk group "Kommuna Lux" will give a concert on the balcony - Odessa online (language of the text - russian)
* The Kommuna Lux band presented their new music video for the song "Vitka Shram" - 7 kanal (language of the text - ukrainian)
* Odesa residents held a charity concert for the benefit of the Ukrainian army - Podrobnosti (language of the text - ukrainian)
* Kommuna Lux - Badehaus-berlin (language of the text - english)
* Kommuna Lux aus der Ukraine beim Tollwood Sommerfestival auf der Bühne - Musix (language of the text - german)
* Kommuna Lux czyli czczypa Odessa gangsta folk`u - Pannonica (language of the text - polish)
* Wie spielt man ein Konzert in einem Krieggebiet? - lvz.de (language of the text - german)
* Győrben ad koncertet az ukrán Kommuna Lux gebraucht - Papageno (language of the text - hungarian)
===Band "Dengi Vpered"===
* We sing hooligan songs with a podkovyrkoy - Odeski visti(language of the text - russian)
* Music with the Odessa soul - The Evening Odesa (language of the text - russian)
* What do they sing and where do they consider "Dengi Vpered" - Оdessa-life(language of the text - russian)
* The "Dengi Vpered" group has been on stage for two years - 7 kanal (language of the text - russian)
* [https://odessa-life.od.ua/article/6637-feliks-shinder-i-evgeniy-kuchurka-odesskiy-yumor-ushel-kornyami-v-peysy Felix Shinder and "Dengi Vpered" went on a tour of Ukraine - kp.ua
* Odesa humor took root in Peys! - Оdessa-life (language of the text - russian)
Category:Musical groups
Category:Musical groups established in 2014	
Category:Ukrainian musical groups