Song in the Time of War

Ukrainian quartet brings cathartic joy to Santa Barbara

WORDS Ninette Paloma

In towering fur hats and embroidered black cotton, Ukrainian neo-folk quartet DakhaBrakha cut a striking scene on the Granada Theatre's stage Thursday, October 6. Ushering in UCSB Arts & Lectures’ downtown residency for the 2022/23 season, musicians Iryna Kovalenko, Nina Garenetska, Olena Tsybulska, and Marko Halanevych brought the soul and strife of the Ukrainian people to our Central Coast shores, delivering a cathartic performance injected with hope in the face of mounting grief.

If DakhaBrakha had debuted in Santa Barbara years prior as scheduled- pre-pandemic, pre-war, and on the heels of Volodymyr Zelensky’s fresh presidency- the concert would have undoubtedly taken on a more traditional tone (check out their 2015 NPR Tiny Desk Concert performance as brilliant proof). Instead, the multi-media performance layered guttural vocals with video imagery of war-torn Ukraine and thundering percussion emblematic of the times. Oscillating between English and Ukrainian, Halanevych peppered spoken word over pulsating, drawn out scores laced with defiance and humor. Punctuating the mystical pipes of Kovalenko and Tsybulska, Garenetska sliced her bow across her cello in a meditative state, portraying the ebbs and flows of a country no stranger to turmoil. The audience, some in Ukrainian traditional folk dress, bit back with shouts of praise and affirmation. Unable to stay seated, many migrated toward the back of the theatre, linking arms and shedding tears in an emotional display of solidarity.

If DakhaBrakha’s unflinching combination of electric artistry and political commentary was any indication, the Arts & Lectures season promises to reflect an evolving live arts culture, one balancing raw honesty with inspiration and echoing a richly complex climate. We’re here for it.