A Score for War
The Way Music Can Alchemize Grief Into Pleasure
This week, Ukranian quartet Dakha Brakha performed in NYC. They are a visual spectacle with their towering black lambswool headdresses, black tassel earrings, and long skirts. From the moment their hands landed on their instruments, it was clear that the venue was far too small to contain the enormity of grief and love they would unleash.
They play harmonica, djembe, accordion, toy flutes and a cello that sounds as though it is tuned in the discordant key of war. But it was their voices that collapsed space and time as they sang traditional marriage and funeral songs transposed with rhythms from West Africa, Persia, Brazil, and American blues.
One song, dedicated to all those who defend their freedom, was accompanied by visual projections of protestors, civilians taking up guns and a farmer hauling a tank out of the mud with his tractor. Another song, dedicated to those who have lost their lives since the beginning of “Russian aggression”, was accompanied by drone images of bombed out apartment buildings. It made me think about all the libraries, museums and personal archives that have been lost to senseless destruction. Music, however, will survive until the last human being leaves this planet. And even then, the plants and animals will continue with songs of their own.
Dakha Brakha was not there to entertain or to please. Even before this latest assault on their homeland, they maintained a stoic stage presence, but here they looked grief-stricken. And yet, if pleasure is about accepting every emotion, every feeling and experience exactly as it is, this was a uniquely historic pleasure. I felt the invisible forces of culture and language, landscape and geography, cruelty and love.
Until a few weeks ago, singer and accordion player Marko Galanevych was deliberating whether to return to Kyiv to join the resistance or continue touring with the band. “This is our way of struggle,” Galanevych said in an interview with KEXP in 2020. “We record songs from different parts of Ukraine to unite us and to share our history and culture as ambassadors from Ukraine.” More than anything I have read or seen in the news, Dakha Brakha conveyed rage, grief, fear and a longing for springtime that only people who have struggled through deep winters can know.
During a pause between songs, a man from the crowd delivered a bouquet of sunflowers and blue daisies with a deep bow to each band member. It was a gesture on behalf of all of us, a small token of gratitude for the musicians who delivered a message from both the past and the future: we are in this together.
FROM THE INSTITUTE OF PLEASURE STUDIES
This is a beautiful video of Dakha Brakha playing a studio session at Station KEXP. And here they play a full concert with a live audience.
Go see them if you can. They are touring Chicago, Boston, SF, LA and others. Here is their upcoming US and European tour schedule.
Dakha Brakha shared several ways to contribute to Ukraine, including Come Back Alive.
We share music with our animal counterparts and with plants. Plant's electrical signals change, sometimes dramatically, with different conditions including our human presence. Check out this sweet project to capture the sounds they emit that escape our range of hearing.