Just remembered this painting for some reason. Ilya Repin (1844-1930) was a Ukrainian artist that I knew as the artist who painted revelatory portraits of typical non-aristocratic Russians. Most people know his famous paintings of the toiling barge haulers on the Volga and Zaporozhian Cossacks. But this painting is different. I stumbled on it while flipping through a large folio of his collected artworks in grad school. It's apparently based on the old Russian Fairy Tale about Sadko's journey to the Tsar of the Sea.
There is something both old and new here. Repin lived a long time, straddling two centuries and a variety of schools of art. There is a debt to traditional realist art, but there is also something very surreal,dreamy and even fluorescent. Such a great attention to detail. The style is similar to patterns found on Palekh laquered boxes. But I still remember how amazed I was when I came across this painting. Repin is often maligned because the Soviet Communist party found in his art a sympathy for the common laborer and whose works revealed the indignities suffered by peasants under a Tsarist government. I just happen to like some of his paintings because they are great art.
Years ago I read in some music mag, probably the now defunct Option Magazine about a member of British alternative band The Wedding Present creating a spin-off band called The Ukrainians. They played a punked up version of Ukrainian traditional songs using some traditional instrumentation. Sung in the mother tongue, naturally. The band was comprised of Pete Solowka (guitarist,Wedding Present), Len Liggins (violin) and Roman Remeynes (mandolin). Well, of course it sounded to me like it was worth a listen. Stirring stuff like Cherez Richku, Cherez Hai, Oi Divchino (My Sweet Girl). Then they began playing with the formula....
Whether from a perverse sense of humor, or a desire to garner attention to the group, they came up with an ep of Smiths covers "Ukrainianized"! Again, this was too amazing to pass up. Four Morrissey songs reinvented. Batyar (Bigmouth Strikes Again), Koroleva Ne Polerma (The Queen Is Dead), M'yaso-Ubivstvo (Meat Is Murder), and Spivaye Solovey (What Difference Does It Make?).
Very East European, yet it works perfectly--the maudlin bitterness of The Smiths complement the traditional arrangements. Funny, but also musically wonderful. The first song Batyar, is the highlight of this Ep, with its percussive stomp and mile a minute mandolin. On Koroleva Ne Polerma the Ukrainian male chorus beginning is another highlight, which then dramatically kicks into the song proper. The record has to be heard to believed. They have also done covers of the Sex Pistols, Velvet Underground, and Nothing Compares 2 u, an Ep of Prince covers. I'm still looking for the Prince Cd, unsuccessfully. The Smiths ep is long out of print but has been appended to the 2009 reissue of their Kultura album.
The Hetman Is Dead
I am remiss in not having more of these guys. I like their music. It is party music. I don't like to create cultural stereotypes, but in my experience many of the Ukrainian people I have met in my life are the most amazing partiers I have ever seen. I really don't know how they do it. I am a rank amateur in comparison. Great people to hang out with. But you listen to this music and you get the urge to let down your hair, celebrate, and have an enjoyable time with the people you care about. And there is a lot of pride and history in the traditional songs. A sort of nostalgia is here similar to the fascination Americans have for the cowboy days of the Wild West. Only this is out on the Steppe, on the borders between East and West.
