The Curtain Is Up
for Arts & Lectures
An Exciting Lineup of Entertainment Is
on Tap for the Fall
By Josef Woodard | September 29, 2022
Read all of the stories in our “Fall’s Cultural Harvest” cover here.
This year’s A&L season kicks off in down-homey fashion and on American cultural soil, once removed, with Charley Crockett’s neo-retro country and soul eloquence, but the varied and multicultural contextual fabric of the series opens up quickly and expands into a myriad of events through May. Four days after Crockett, the cultural topography shifts eastward to Ukraine, when the modern yet indigenous ensemble known as DakhaBrakha lands at The Granada Theatre on Thursday, October 6.
Its Santa Barbara debut comes amid a fairly whirlwind touring schedule for the group, which had gained acclaim and momentum in the so-called “world music” scene, prior to Ukraine’s tragic entry into the world’s attention and news cycle at the hands of Putin’s aggression. In the current agitated atmosphere, the group’s popularity has given them something of a Ukrainian cultural ambassador status around the world.
Founded by theater director Vladyslav Troitskyi in 2004, DakhaBrakha is a unique, progressive yet tradition-tapping ensemble that weaves a fluid, genre-crossing, and border-crossing sound with elements of experimentalism and contemporary theater in the mix. At times, the group’s atmospheric music can resemble something by Sigur Rós, if the Icelandic soundscapers merged with Eastern European kinfolk. The ranks of DakhaBrakha’s touring musicians include Marko Halanevych, Iryna Kovalenko, Olena Tsybulska, and Nina Garenetska, all of whom also contribute to the resonant vocal textures in the music and who play an assortment of indigenous and western instruments.
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