Ihor Tsymbrovsky Beatrice (1996 / 2024)
“Music has always pulled Ukrainians out of the abyss,” writes Vitalii “Bard” Bardetskyi in his liner notes for Even the Forest Hums: Ukrainian Sonic Archives 1971-1996, released last year via Light in the Attic Records. “When there is no hope for the future, there is still music. In such moments, the whole nation resonates under a groove. Music, breaking through the concrete of various colonial systems, is an incredible, often illogical, way to preserve dignity.”
A brilliant example of what Bardetskyi describes is Ihor Tsymbrovsky’s otherworldly ballad on the aforementioned compilation. The lyrics of “Beatrice”, originally released in 1996, are taken from a poem by Mykhail Semenko, a prominent figure in Ukrainian futurist poetry of the 1920s. Tsymbrovsky, a poet himself (and an architect and musician as well), sings Semenko’s poem in his angelic style and plays the piano in a manner reminiscent of Keith Jarrett. The result is heavy and beautiful and entirely of its own. It is our song of the day.
Start the conversation
Become a paid member of The Rest to gain access to the comments section.