I’ll be speaking at Amherst College in advance of DakhaBrakha’s concert there on the evening of April 7. Haven’t heard of the NPR darlings and breakout Ukrainian musicians DakhaBrakha? You can check out their NPR Tiny Desk Concert here. Tickets for the Amherst show are available here. Lecture is free and open to the public (4:30, Fayerweather Hall, Pruyne Lecture Hall).

The title of my talk is: “Ethno-Chaos: Hearing DakhaBrakha in the Context of Contemporary Revolutionary Ukrainian Politics.”

This lecture will contextualize some of the sonic influences that DakhaBrakha alchemize in their self-described ethno-chaos band. As they morphed from claiming to be apolitical musicians to touring as “Ambassadors of the Maidan Revolution,” DakhaBrakha exported a political message to audiences throughout Western Europe and North America; since the 2013-14 revolution, they have forged creative alliances that also suggest a particular progressive politics. In the current global climate, as the Ukrainian state faces an existential threat from continuing aggression from Russia, artists such as DakhaBrakha articulate their hopes and frustrations through their musical performances. Situating their creative experiments within a bigger emerging Kyivan arts scene, we will examine the sonic markers utilized in specific songs and ask what kinds of stories they tell about the complex geopolitical landscape of contemporary Ukraine. Through an exploration of “soundmarks of sovereignty,” this lecture will decode some of the layered histories of social belonging that their richly hybrid songs evoke.