Onuka
It’s rare to see a song by band from Eastern Europe that would conquer iTunes electronic charts across western countries on the Old Continent. But this is exactly what the experienced Ukrainian musicians Nata Zhyzhchenko (Tomato Jaws) and Eugene Filatov (The Maneken) achieved with their track “Vidlik” of their new project Onuka. The band fuses contemporary electronic music (house, electro-funk) and folk music played on traditional Ukrainian musical instruments into the so-called folktronica. Their debut conquered Ukrainian iTunes charts. Their tracks “Vidlik” and “Time” have four million views on YouTube each. Onuka won YUNA Music Award (Discovery of the Year) and many other prestigious awards. One of the best contemporary Ukrainian bands is coming to play Pohoda 2018.
28. February 2018
“We discovered Onuka at Eurosonic 2017. They put on an amazing show; their use of tradition in electronic music is exceptional, imaginative and unforced. I think that any artist from Kraftwerk to Prodigy would like to compose a song like “Vidlik”,” said Michal Kaščák.
Eugene is responsible for the sound and Nata is the face and soul of the project. What is specific about this band is that besides electronic drums and trombones, they brought traditional Ukrainian instruments bandura and sopilka, which almost disappeared during Soviet era, back to life. They made it to the top of Ukrainian iTunes charts already with their first LP Onuka in 2014. Two years later, they released another successful EP Vidlik. Apart from the eponymous hit, EP contains track “1986”, which deals with Chernobyl disaster (singer’s father was involved in disaster mitigation). Toward the end of last year, they released a live recording Live With NAONI Orchestra. 17 songs from older as well as new albums were recorded in cooperation with the National Academic Orchestra of Folk Instruments. They are planning to release a new LP Mozaika in spring and are coming to play Pohoda 2018 at the beginning of summer.