During last weeks Independence Day celebrations I was responsible for sound and music. To make things simple since my insight in Ukrainian music is embarrassingly low, I found a playlist on Spotify labeled “Best Ukrainian Music”. I was a bit lucky, because many of the songs got comments like “Oh, I like this song” or “This is a great band”.
Okean Elzy is one of those bands that was mentioned, and also a band that caught my attention after just a few songs. I was told it has been described as the Depeche Mode of Ukraine. I can see the parallells, but after having listened to them a bit more, I also think they are distinctive enough to just be themselves.
Other than that, I know very little of them I am afraid. They are a well established group, according to Wikipedia founded in Lviv in 1994. Looking at their tour schedule for the upcoming year they will play in places like Los Angeles, London, Paris and Zurich (but no Sweden 😭).
I thought I wanted to share two songs that stuck with me immediately. First one is called я так хочу (I really want..). Just a small comment on the word так here. It is the equivalent of yes, but can also be used as a strengthening word, in this case lifting the sentence from “I want” (я хочу) to “I really want”.
The other song I wanted to share is called Обійми, which means Embrace or “Hold me”. Listening to it, it is easy to feel a longing after someone to hold you.
Image: By Destination.darkness.johgas – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49892770