There is a suitable song for every moment in a person’s life – says Zoryana Dybovska, who founded Yagody in 2016 in Lviv, western Ukraine, with students from the theater faculty. The four traveled through all the oblasts of Ukraine to track down the musical traditions of the people there. From this, Yagody create their own modern and gripping sound, supported by guest musicians on drums, trombone, guitar, accordion or the drymba, a Jew’s harp of the Hutsuls from the Carpathians. In 2020, Yagody released their first album and major performances were scheduled for the medieval festival “Tu Stan!” in Lviv in 2018 or 2022 at Lodžie Worldfest in Jičín, Czech Republic. Since Yagody are at home in the theater, they realize their musical ideas for the stage according to dramaturgical principles, a concert is like a performance in one act. When a compere announced the hitherto nameless band at their first concert, he spontaneously called them ‘Yagody ‘, in English ‘berries’. Yagody’s repertoire consists of songs from all over Ukraine, as well as othe countries such as the Balkans. The musicians thus have access to an incredibly diverse world of melodies, rhythms and themes. A concert with Yagody is a ritual. It is listening to the inner self. There is the breath of the wind in the field, and the voice of our ancestors. This is living energy, musical trance, a dance of voices in the pulse of humanity. Yagody’s songs are like love letters from the past that haven’t arrived yet. Yagody is undoubtedly one of the most charismatic Ukrainian folk bands!
Zoryana Dybovska: vocals, singing bowl
Sofia Leshishak: vocals, Djembe
Valeria Mocharska-Lyulchyk: vocals, percussion
Tatiana Voitov: vocals, Bayan
Timur Gogitidze: percussion
Vadym Voitovych: bassguitar
In the frame of the concert series „Künstlerinnen aus Westfalen und weltweit“ (artists from Westphalia and the world)
In cooperation with Welthaus Bielefeld
Supported by LWL Kulturstiftung, Kultursekretariat NRW in Gütersloh and the Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhein-Westphalia