The history of the Ukrainian prog rock or 10 significant prog-representatives
Progressive rock is not a simple genre. Surrounded by many myths and legends, it exists since the 60’s of the previous century, having passed its blooming period and come to its climax, having survived a few revivals in 80’s and 90’s to finally reach its reborn nowadays. More difficult and long compositions, a usage of non-standard time signature and polyrhythms, an experiments dedication – these and many other features are well-known by the Ukrainian fans of this independent genre. So luckily, there’s no need to explain it anymore how King Crimson, Yes or Genesis have influenced the sound of Tool, Porcupine Tree, Opeth and The Mars Volta, or how the last ones affected the further prog.
The fact that the mainstream contemporary progressive has finally put down its roots in Ukraine is proved by activity of the most famous abroad Ukrainian hard bands like Stoned Jesus and Jinjer. Although both two formations have begun their journey from another genre (the first one had been playing pure stoner-doom and the second one was associated with groove-metal), now the “progressive” tag is tightly connected to their art which gives Ukrainians the opportunity to make their first steps on the map of the world prog music.
Both Napalm Records label signers don’t lack the acceptance in the eyes of the Ukrainian public. In this context, the most important thing is to do something that hasn’t been done before – to gather the majority of such Ukrainian bands together, to explore their history, to classify them by different waves and to make the whole picture of the Ukrainian progressive music out of it in the end. It is a necessary research which would help break through the informational blockade which has reached that level when thousands of people know and love Плач Єремії (transc. – Plach Yeremiyi, eng. ed. – The Cry of Jerimiah), Кому Вниз (transc. – Komu Vnyz, eng. ed. – Who goes down) and Мертвий Півень (transc. Mertvyi Piven’, eng. ed. – Dead Rooster) but only few of them know that those bands were earlier related to prog / art-rock.
Ukrainian prog-musicians were always caught in the crossfire. To perform such music in here means to be the marginal within the mainstream conditional underground, so it is hopeless to expect any recognition as we meet such genre ignorance. The aforementioned conditions have made those bands make their sound more digestible in the meanings of commercial, so they’ve faced the farewell to the ‘progressive’ part and became more of a mainstream. There were desperate ones left who tried to take a stand, playing for a little crowd, though the majority of them has become a memory for the tight circle of fans.
The list contains Сверчковое число, Клуб Шанувальників Чаю, Всяк Випадок, Nебо-rock, Er J Orchestra, Раббота Хо, Біокорд, Ихтиандр Один у Папы Дельфин, project "Є", project "Ох", Ведо, Пам’ятка Архітектури, Королівські Зайці, Цукор Біла Смерть, Ігор Цимбровський. Let’s be true, the mentioned musicians are mostly from the 90’s and are unknown for the public, their records are hard to find on any musical platforms. They are remembered only by some separate ones.
"I listen to progressive rock since the first part of 90’s. Back then, I received all information from the radio broadcast of such journalists like Dmytro Galyona and Olha Smolyar. I heard the recordings of Сверчковоечисло (transc. Sverchkovoye Chyslo, eng. ed. – The Grig Number), Всяквипадок (transc. Vsyak Vypadok, eng. ed. Any Case), Біокорд (transc. Biochord), Er.J.Orchestra, Ведо (transc. Vedo). Before that, Dmytro Galyona addicted me to King Crimson and Yes by his suggestive programs. It is the King Crimson-print felt in the music of Біокорд. It’s a pity that one of the most sophisticated rock music genres has not that many fans in Ukraine if we compare it to others. Although, there are some bands that achieved more than, let’s say, Всяквипадoк or Ведо, I mean КомуВниз,ПлачЄремії,МертвийПівень,БраттяБлюзу are objectively more popular. Still, they got their success because of other style dominants in their compositions – pop-rock, folk or gothic ones."
While mentioned many times Плач Єремії, Кому Вниз and Мертвий Півень were getting all their fame, the other ones remained in the shadow. It is not that their music was less interesting, technically evolved or innovative, on the contrary, they deserve our respect as they dared to play unusual experimental and progressive music in Ukraine of the 90’s. Furthermore, their activity frequently crossed the other branch of prog – art-rock (counting the fact how these two waves are tightly bounded, it would be more convenient to classify all mentioned above collectives as the “progressive” ones). But not everything that an abroad listener likes is understood by a local public. To break through the cemented taste of an average listener from the post-soviet country who only knew a few a variety artists is a hard row to hoe.
"In Britain, for example, each band has hold its own niche and found its listener. Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin went their way, Yes and King Crimson chose another one. We have it different here: people listened to the songs that have a verse, a chorus, and a beautiful melody, that is traditional. And it applies to all genres. That’s why we don’t have the progressive music, we didn’t have it then and we have none now".
"It is necessary to realize that Ukrainian rock was inseparable from Russian rock about 20-30 years ago, and the last one mostly followed the 80’s fashion. There was no interest in prog – heavy metal, punk, post-punk occupied the tops. So when the musicians got something experimental, it was more likely by an accident. Those times it was made by РабботаХо (transc. Rabbota Hoe), ЦукорБiлаСмерть(transc. Tsukor Bila Smert’, eng. ed. – Sugar White Death), Er J Orchestra (jazz band, to be true). On the post-soviet space the interest to this genre emerged with the internet developing (15-20 years ago) which corresponded the world interest to prog (exactly then many ‘classic’ prog stars renewed their activity in this field). As a result, some separate musicians consciously wanted to play the genre, frequently with the aim to become the most technically / speedily/ experimentally skilled. Though your technic is really limited when you play УРАЛ (eng.ed. Ural – the most popular Soviet electric guitar) guitar."
New prog bands began to appear in the beginning of 00’s and unlike their forerunners from the 90’s, they were inspired by the new directions of the genre. But they did not manage to create a new scene or to set the standard to follow in Ukraine – they all differed too much by style, had no connections between so as no thematical events to connect them. This caused a kind of disorder of genre evolving and spreading processes which may be felt even today. People play the progressive music as they understand it, remaining almost the only representatives of it in their surrounding without even suspecting that it is the same situation in the nearest city.
This, finally, brings us closer to the list of the brightest bands which have ever played art- or prog-rock in Ukraine. The lack of communication between them, the lack of scene to perform, irregularity in genre populating – despite all the mentioned problems some Ukrainians have managed to play an interesting and original prog. Some performed it in 90’s, for others the influence of it showed itself later in 00’s, and some bands have recently appeared. Anyways, here is the list of our favorites. For the first time.
Біокорд (eng. ed. – Biochord)
An instrumental collective from Kyiv which appeared in 1989 and played under the curation of the guitarist Mykola Bykov. During the listening to those few compositions which can be found throughout the internet, you may notice the most influence of the best periods of King Crimson on Біокорд’s music, when John Wetton and Andrian Belew were the vocalists. Fortunately, there are some live videos of a good quality which you can still watch on YouTube. They show that the musicians of Біокорд stand in one line with the mentioned genre pioneers if we talk about virtuosity of the mathematical & "disciplined" prog-rock.
Their technical level of performing seemed unbelievable those times, and free-jazz improvisations of the Kyiv band amazed and scared at the same time. Some say they were the first to play electric prog in Ukraine and the others would cross themselves, stating their music is mad. They both would be right as the Біокорд was a controlled splash of an artist’s craziness which faded away in the end of 90’s.
Ихтиандр Один у Папы Дельфин / Ichthyander Dad’s Only Dolphin
There were the times when Oleksiy Ivanovych, the anchorperson of “Music Box” and "Рок-Полігон" (Rock Polygon) compared this band’s first performance to the debut of the Pink Floyd – that’s how psychedelic it was. They came together in 1994 in Kropyvnytskyi to record their demo on the bobbin magnetophonon and to send it to Germany with the help of their mates. Unexpectedly they received some laudable feedback from a bunch of foreign music magazines, for example, they were compared to King Crimson, Gentle Giant and even to the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Back then, it seemed like this band has a huge success awaiting ahead although Ichthyander rapidly disbanded. The band got together only 20 years later, in 2014, to play one and only show in One Music Fest 2014. There was a two-disc album released, containing the audio and video recordings of the band and was complimented in Europe again, but it took less than a year for the band to disappear one more time.
Arlekin
Arlekin was more of a love confession of Ihor Sydorenko to the neoprog than a big project with the plans for the future. As he says, the material for Arlekin was kept "written for the drawer" as he the musician had no time for it between his main activity in the Stoned Jesus and Krobak bands. But he finally managed to find the time in 2013, so the world saw his "Disguise Serenades" album five sunny springlike compositions in the spirit of Marillion, IQ, Pink Floyd. The full-format was released on three labels across the world and got a few dozens of reviews on ProgArchives and has been in the tops of neoprog albums on BandCamp. But there was no live continuation of it as the fans expected. .
This year Arlekin plans to release a new album: it is still unknown whether the project will remain the creative outlet of Sydorenko or it will become something bigger. Anyways, Arlekin is still the only representative in the Ukrainian neoprogressive niche.
The activity of the Kharkiv-based compositor Anton Kalughin is systematically ignored by the Ukrainian mass media for no reason. The dozens of prog albums released (where all instruments are usually recorded in the studio with the professional musicians involved but not lazily written using VST), contracts with the European and American labels, performances on the foreign thematical festivals starting from 1997, Kalughin productively works on realization of his composer talent. His music is mostly graceful and sweety symphonic prog under the felt influenced of Camel, Focus, Kayak and other non-mainstream genre representatives.
As it usually happens to such unusual experimental artist on our terraines, this person gets his/her recognition abroad and only then becomes popular in Ukraine. Hundreds of excited reviews of the Kalughin works are written on ProgArchives since long ago. But it is still a question with no answer when the glory of Kharkiv composer finally reaches our motherland, though it’s rhetorical.
La Horsa Bianca
Another Kharkiv citizens who recently appeared on the Ukrainian independent scene, despite this, they already managed to express themselves with three solid albums at the intersection of classic prog and psychedelic. Each album was recorded and mastered by musicians themselves, each one contains the tracks based on the words of the outstanding Ukrainian poets and each one got the recognition of Neformat. Their music emanates an oddball variegation and has that didactic calmness – this must have been estimated by Weisskalt Records which noticed La Horsa Bianca and released their "Diluvian Beat" album in 2020.
Although music of this avantgarde collective cannot be strictly classified as "progressive rock", after a few listenings you’ll probably see the visions of Frank Zappa more than Cthulhu. Add the serious influence of King Crimson and The Dillinger Escape Plan to this, include the absolute virtuosity of the band members and what you get is the schizoid mindblowing mixture similar to something that Liquid Tension Experiment plays, a bit dangerous for the psyche but totally unique to our land.
Cthulhu Rise came together in the end of 00’s in Kyiv, had a vocalist for some time but later decided to play instrumental music only. Their debut "42" album came out on the French Musea Records, the label which specializes on releasing jazz-rock artists. This album got the laudable critic, so the band was into the new full-format which came out only in 2016 and was named "The Second One".
In 2020 the band announced its existence’s end and released their posthumous mini album called "Last". By musicians’ words, they had to stop "decrypting the signals Cthulhu sends them from the bottom of the ocean"…
PINS
There is a certain casta of musicians on the world scene who get inspired by the sound of cult Tool and A Perfect Circle, combining it with the trendy earlier alternative rock: Karnivool, Rishloo, Dead Letter Circus, Soen and more other names. On this scene Ukraine is happy to have own representative, we are talking about PINS which were formed in 1999. The band gradually moved from nu-metal to the more sophisticated and intelligent prog-rock with the deep Ukrainian-speaking lyrics during its musical journey. The collective managed to get recognition in the eyes of the local public as the guys regularly played on the biggest Ukrainian rock-festivals of the 00’s, released two full format albums on the Інша Музика label "Мандрівник" (transc. Mandrivnyk; end. ed. – The Traveler) in 2008 and "Марафон" (eng. ed. – Marathon) in 2015, and were on the honorable place for the long time along with the famous Ukrainian bands like ТОЛ, АННА, MegaMass, etc. For now the band is on hiatus and does not plan to come back to its activity the nearest time.
5R6/Doomed City
As for now, these Kharkiv residents are popular for their membership in the post-hardcore formation called Doomed City. But the underground scene fans also remember them playing prog-rock with the grunge and stoner flavor as the part of 5R6. The guys were active under this name till 2018, they performed music following the sound of Tool, Porcupine Tree and Alice In Chains, actively toured across Ukraine and sometimes even in Europe. This collective really had own recognizable sound – low vocals, roaring guitars and catchy riffs convinced the listener that the band members are confident about what they play, doing it sincerely and with all excitement. The apex of their activity is the album called "Islands" which was listed in the tops of the best 2015th releases probably in all Ukrainian music media. Mini-albums that came out in 2010 and 2012 are worth attention, too, though they more of a demonstration of how 5R6 evolved their sounding and came to the perfect balance of prog and grunge, by which the band impressed us on its "Islands".
Обійми Дощу
A very sophisticated and adult music which calls up a blue mood, a desire to think about the past for a long time even after the listening is over. Ukrainian-speaking lyrics do not hinder the process of an abroad acceptance – such melodic of the Ukrainian language is highly estimated in the West, especially with tender melodies and orchestral arrangements of Kyiv proggers. A violin, a cello, a flute and a saxophone bring some elegance to the music of Обійми Дощу, an acoustic guitar sometimes gives out the moody riffs and the velvet vocals of Volodymyr Agafonkin recalls the vocals of Mikael Akerfeldt from Opeth. This Swedish band is the best variant for the comparison as both full-formats of Обійми Дощу ("Елегія" (eng. ed. – "The Elegy") of 2009 and "Сон" (eng. ed. – "The Sleep") of 2017) look like they admire what Opeth has done on the "Damnation" album. For now Обійми Дощу continue their activity: they presented the first in 9 years videoclip for the song "Навідстані" (eng. ed. –"On the distance") and band’s popularity seems to grow bigger.
Joncofy
Joncofy played the impressive prog-metal with an unusual dynamic, beautiful penetrative vocals and a very special atmosphere – the formation was a child of the guitarist and composer Maksym Oshkalo, who created the music, without any exaggeration, of the world scale. After the debut "Rorschach Inkblots" EP release, those Kyiv musicians attracted the attention of the European public and were invited to perform on the cult German festival Euroblast – the band successfully played it there and also gave some concerts together with the Swedish Scar Symmetry. As ex-bassist of the band Dmytro Gubskyi says, they were proposed the contract with the big label with the condition they will master their technical level. They came back to Ukraine, gave some performances and something has gone wrong: the band published its teasers and updates from the studio for a long time. It’s been 8 years already since they feed their fans with the promises, always rerecording, changing their lineup, but there was nothing new from Joncofy. Fortunately, we could hear two singles – "Mediapocalypse" in 2015 and "VELET" in 2016, but it seems like a little piece of what we had to hear on their full-format.
Will that notorious long-term creation be ever released? No one knows. The trend of progressive metal in the spirit of Tesseract, Periphery and Monuments fades away but there’s something to be sure about – if Oshkalo ever releases his long-awaited full-format, it will be definitely listened to and estimated. Because Joncofy still has its devoted fans.
The progressive wave of Ukraine has a very interesting and rich history and if you finished this long-read – you seem to have no doubts about that, too. It was impossible to have a place for all worthy musicians at once in this "list of ten", so you may find one more ten of the bands, somehow connected to the prog, below:
• Покруч
• Edwin Hubble
• Sealand Airlines
• City Of Me
• Nug
• Sleep In Heads
• VOVK
• Septa
• Циферблат
• Starchitect
• Inside The Sound
• Korypheus
• Majesty Of Revival
Special thanks to Mykhailo Sokulskyi, Ihor Kotyk, Ihor Sydorenko and John Bass for their help during this material creating.
This article is part of a series of materials on the development of various underground musical genres in Ukraine. Early in the series.
Translated by Elizaveta Dzhulay
