Mavka | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Kyiv, Ukraine |
| Genres | downtempo electronica ambient ethnic world music folk live-looping trance noise |
| Instrument | loop pedal |
| Years active | 2015–present |
| Labels | Mavka |
| Members | Iryna Lazer Oleksiy Mikriukov Taras Lazer |
Mavka is a Ukrainian band combining ethnic and folk themes with downtempo, electronica and ambient music.
The band was formed in 2013 by a theater actress Iryna Lazer (lead-singer, composer, performer) and Oleksiy Mikriukov (composer) under the initial name Crossworlds.
Collaborating exclusively on-line they managed to release the first mini-album Ivana Kupala Night in 2014. The full-length Day and Night album was released a year later in 2015.[1]
Since then Iryna Lazer began performing live using loop-station, vocal pedals and synthesizers creating polyphonic compositions in Ukrainian and her own invented 'Mermaid' language.[2] In 2015 another musician joined the band due to the growing amount of live performances and the band's name was changed to Mavka.
In 2016 Mavka appeared on a number of festivals including GogolFest and The Day of Street Music.[3] The band also played on Hi5 studio[4] and performed for the plays in Zoloti Vorota Theater.[5]
In 2017 members of Mavka wrote soundtrack and acted in the movie 'The Tale of Money'.[6][7] Later the band released music video of the official soundtrack 'Night Shadow'.[8][9]
In 2018 the band started collaborating with the сhildren's сhoir Dyvo (conductor Tetiana Nadolinska).[10] The band and the choir produced ethnic-electronica compositions and some interpretations of the Ukrainian folk songs. Together they gave the concert 'Horovod under the stars' on May 27 on the stage of Kyiv Planetarium.[11][12]
In 2018 band's leader Iryna Lazer recorded vocals for the vinyl LP album Femininho by King Imagine.[13]
On December 25, 2018, the band presented an exclusive Christmas concert "Carols with the looper" in the cultural center Master Class.[14][15] The main idea of the concert was for the vocalist to create and perform live the polyphonic carols by herself using only the loop-station.[16]
In 2019 the band created an original version of the song 'Hej Sokoly' for a documentary movie 'The Borderline. Hrubieszów operation' which premiered on May, 28, at the Kyiv International Film Festival "Molodist".[17]
In June 2019 the band started collaborating with the German dancer Véronique Langlott and created the music for her choreography research Folkstrance.[18] The artists presented the performance on July 1 at the cultural platform Izolyatsia.[19]
In August 2019 the band re-released the album Day and Night with the "Mavka" band's name.
The band's music is used as a background in plays 'Sasha, throw out the trash' of Kyiv Academic Young Theatre and in "The People Are Singing" of Royal Exchange Theatre.