Polish experimental music band gives an audio performance in Odesa

The author's audio performance Radio Night, which combined a performative reading and electroacoustic improvisation music, took place in Odesa at the More Music Club.

The performers were the Polish trio Karbido and the writer Yuri Andrukhovych.

The central narrative motif of the event was the story of a musician who fights the regime on the side of the revolution, and after its defeat, while in an unknown hiding place (or maybe in prison), opens a secret night radio station in search of a further meaning of existence. The backdrop of the action is the time of the pandemic, climate protests, and Russian aggression - a time of radical and final to be or not to be.

"Radio Night is the latest collaboration between the Ukrainian writer and the Polish musical formation, which in an unexpected way continues their almost 20-year collaboration, overcoming the boundaries of stereotypical literary and musical collaboration and approaching a live radio performance.

According to Jacek Gocłowski, Consul General of the Republic of Poland in Odesa, the concert was planned several months in advance, but it happened at a time when most of the city was without electricity, water and heat after the Russian shelling.

"But there was a great mood, so we were lucky. The goal of this project was to show that Polish musicians can collaborate with Ukrainian cultural figures. We want to popularize Polish culture. We want people to understand that Polish culture is not only about pies, bigus, and ice dancing, but also about other things," the consul said.

According to the writer Yuriy Andrukhovych, he and Carbido have already performed in Odesa, but before the full-scale invasion. And this year, they decided that if Polish musicians come to Ukraine in December, and they were planning a concert in Lviv, they would play in Odesa as well.

"Musicians, my friends, have chosen this path in life to stay away from the mainstream - to create something strange that most people don't accept, and we have to work to make sure that those who understand and accept it appear in this majority. Our story begins in 2006, when we gave a concert in Kharkiv. We were faced with this reality that after 10 minutes people turn away and leave, but gradually we gained a circle of fans who even traveled to other cities to attend our concerts. We try to do something atypical. Maybe if it were up to me, I would drag them into some pop, but they have a principled approach. And I'm interested in how faithful they are to their principle," the writer noted.

Yuriy Andrukhovych is a Ukrainian poet, prose writer, translator, representative of postmodernism in literature, and essayist. He holds a PhD in philology. He lives and works in Ivano-Frankivsk.

Кирило Бойко