Traveling musicians, street performers, kobzars have been known in Ukraine since ancient times. They were closely connected with the culture and history of the Ukrainian people, because musicians shaped Ukrainian identity, collected, preserved and transmitted the creativity of the people, expressing it in songs and thoughts, stories and fairy tales to the accompaniment of the lyre, kobza or bandura. Kobzars have always been a kind of link between the past and the present.
Nowadays, this art has not lost its relevance, it has only become more modern. A vivid confirmation of this is the musicians from the group with the humorous name "Spiked Kobzars" .
Six young, colorful guys, dressed in jeans and embroidered shirts, would hardly differ from the usual boy band so common in modern show business, if not for the musical instruments and repertoire that make these musicians truly special, and their works interesting and unique. The sextet does not call itself “Spiky Kobzars” for nothing, because they play exclusive music on banduras: cover versions of Ukrainian folk songs and world hits of different times, instrumental and original works, make musical cartoons and mixes of traditional folk motifs with modern dance compositions.
How did the idea for this project come about?
By creating an original, creative group unlike any other in existence, in 2010, the famous bandurist, composer, performer, laureate of many competitions, and also a semi-finalist of the television show "Ukraine's Got Talent-2" Yaroslav Dzhus decided to demonstrate that in the Ukrainian musical space there is a place for a unique, high-quality product created thanks to a real folk musical instrument - the bandura.
Yaroslav Dzhus gathered together a group of boys who studied together at the Street School of Kobzar Art, where they mastered the bandura, who, just like him, loved this ancient instrument and wanted as many people as possible to join this love, not only in Ukraine, but also around the world.
In addition to the founder, the group also includes Yuriy Myronets, Volodymyr Vikarchuk, Danylo Nosko, Yaroslav Velyky and Serhiy Potienko. They are all different, unique in appearance, voice timbre, character and image. The guys belong to different modern subcultures, so their musical preferences sometimes differ significantly.
Coming from different parts of Ukraine (Zhytomyr, Rivne, Donetsk, Kyiv, Kirovohrad regions), today they all live in Kyiv, study and work here.
The "Shpilyasti Kobzar" collective first appeared on Ukrainian television in 2011 in the third season of the show "Ukraine's Got Talent" and immediately entered the semi-finals, finding themselves among the fifty best performers.
And then they successfully won the hearts of listeners in Germany, Uzbekistan, and Russia. Ukrainians living there invite them to perform abroad. The guys gladly agree, but they don’t plan to stay there – love for their native land is in their blood. They speak exclusively Ukrainian.
Popularization of the bandura
For the vast majority of Ukrainian music lovers, the bandura is primarily associated with mournful songs performed by gray-haired musicians. Therefore, the appearance of young, handsome young men with banduras, who professionally and virtuously master the instruments, with pure harmonious polyphony and unusual playful performance, was initially quite surprising, but at the same time it simply could not remain unnoticed and not interest them.
The banduras played by the young men are not entirely traditional, they are modern concert instruments. These used to be heard on the Ukrainian stage, but they were used exclusively to accompany folk or classical works. “Shpilyasti” were the first to decide that the bandura could be popular among the youth. And by decorating their instruments with multi-colored LEDs, they also interested children in them.
Musicians are sure that not all the possibilities of the bandura are known to listeners, because this unique instrument is able to conquer any heart with its magical sound.
Kobzar show
"Spiky Kobzars" is a project designed for a diverse audience. The repertoire that the young men have chosen for themselves is interesting, original, and has no analogues.
The musicians immediately decided to move away from the usual sad compositions to the bandura, replacing them with non-standard variations of cheerful and mournful Ukrainian folk songs, combining them with famous world compositions. And all this to the bandura. This is a presentation of folk achievements in a new modern sound.
How, for example, do you know the Ukrainian song "Oh, in the Cherry Orchard" in the familiar folk style, which suddenly begins to sound under a rock-n-roll melody or under the hits of the seventies: the Italians Ricchi e Poveri or the French singer Joe Dassin, and then under the music from the movie "The Generals of the Sand Quarries"? And the R&B-style kolomyyka? Unexpected and interesting at the same time. And so with each song, turning the familiar into something unique and colorful.
In addition to performing folk songs, the guys also interpret modern Ukrainian pop songs, do jazz improvisations, play soundtracks for films, and their performances include both hard rock and electronic music.
During performances, the "Spiky Kobzars" not only sing beautifully and play the bandura superbly, but also behave like real artists with a good sense of humor.
Today the group is very well-known and popular in Ukraine. It takes part in various festive events, concerts, music festivals, where they are gladly invited and received with enthusiasm. The guys are frequent guests of charity events, they perform with pleasure in educational institutions. And when there is time, the young men, as real kobzars once did, go out “into the people” – they play on Khreshchatyk.
And the guys believe that very soon, thanks to their music, a new generation of bandur players will grow up, and the true Ukrainian folk instrument will definitely find a worthy place in world culture, just as it was reborn and reigned supreme in its native Ukraine.
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