It was a painful project for me personally on physical and emotional levels from the first freezing shooting day and ending with September 11 concert.  I have chosen to speak up about my 9/11 American experience to the MuHa audience, media and friends.  Though 10 years later in England this topic did generate some interest and we managed to get a bit of media coverage of our project, I felt it was not something English people were too passionate to commemorate. Understandingly, 10 years after-  9/11 events  are  not more than a history that affected the world of today in various, mostly non positive ways. Besides, America with its foreign policies is not a very popular country here in the UK among free thinking educated people.

Nevertheless, ’ 9/11 UK community ‘  commemorated the anniversary with a usual passion. Through this project I was lucky to meet    Rob Halligan – musician, broadcaster fro Coventry who, like myself,  lost his father in 9/11. He and his family welcomed me in his house and we talked about 9/11 and music in his radio show.

September 11 Concert at Nottingham contemporary Caffe Bar happened to be more of MuHa’s family and friends community support event rather than a big scale commemoration event I initially hoped for. Looking back at it however , I am happy it happened this way. It was great to see close friends and friends of a friends supporting the event. I am very happy to say special thanks to Manushi Dance Company lead by a beautiful woman Vina Ladwa; Ling Peng with her amazing Erhu playing; Abel Chaude on clarinet;  Richard Kensington on percussion; Emma Mario organizing fundraising;  Ste Alan for booking us such a beautiful venue; Steve Barnet for a great sound; photographer Robert Balmer and all the people who came and helped us to raise money for the War Child charity.

It was an amazing experience to work with all the people who were involved in one way or another, but to be completely honest, I am happy the project is over and we can concentrate on our future collaborations,  including animation project with Chinese studio…. oops… not to spoil the surprise- will leave it to 2012!

I was very happy to travel to my native town with the gig for the first time. As our audience is the west, I was eager to find out how our music is be perceived by the people I draw my inspiration from. The other idea was to recreate MuHa songs with Ukrainian based musicians. From the UK band we had Richard Kensington on percussion and myself on lead guitar/vocals; from Ukraine we had Constantin Bushinsky on solo guitar and Natasha Kasyanchyk
on dombra- the house of Sun instrument.

The schedule was very tight. In 4 days we had to rehearse all the material, cover 700 kilometres ( about 500 miles) in a dusty falling apart van and play two gigs. What I can not stop admiring about Ukraine is that there is not much planning ahead or planning altogether going on. Nevertheless, things seem to fall in place and happen on their own at the last minute.

It was an unusual experience to sing the audience that does actually understands the lyrics. As a writer I have to say the truth in my songs, otherwise they will not be true songs. But to write and perform yourself inside out to the audience, opening up the vulnerable sides- its a sort of a bravery. It has been always easy for me in England and I try express the emotions and the energy with my performance, the details are left unknown, therefore I safe The Ukrainian audience did understand the lyrics, and you know what- I loved it. The songs appeared to have another dimension to them.

Playing with Constantin and Natasha was such a privilege. I feel very lucky to know such good musicians, but most importantly such amazing people!

2011 MuHa UA project was born.

Confirmed Artists so far:

MuHa
Ling Peng- Erhu player from China
Olya Shafikova- pianist from Moscow
Manushi Dance Company – Classical Indian Kathak dance
Abel Chaudé ( France)
Richard Kensington- Cuban percussionist from Nottingham

BRING A CANDLE

Our Charity is the War Child – they help children affected by war and terrorism. Emma Mario is an organiser of the fundraising. Please donate online to the War Child

The charity’s Sherwood link organised an exhibition of a London artist Zachary Peirce who went to Chernobyl and drawn his inspiration from this abandoned town with it’s gloomy, almost unreal scenery. MuHa was of course was very happy to support the event with our gig at the Malt Cross.

On a photo Ian Harra with Zachary Peirce

See Zachary Peirce’s pictures of the event.

In April this year we travelled to Ukraine to share Muha music with the Ukrainian audience for the first time. From English side we had Richard Kensington on percussion and myself ( Iryna) on guitar and vocals. From Ukrainian side we had my old good friends Constant Bushinsky on guitar and Natasha Kasyanchyk Utesheva on Ukrainian dombra.
In my native town of Vinnitsa we headlined international acoustic music festival Vesela Pysanka. The schedule was very tight, we had only 5 hours in town for all our logistics, vodka shots, soundcheck and rehearsal – the only one we managed to fit in with Natasha, the video of which find below.

It was a fantastic experience to sing to the audience that lives at the place where my music is coming from on a first place. It was very important for me to see they loved the songs, they understood the lyrics and music – I felt I do something real , still rooted in my culture even though I live abroad for many years.

Like other artists from various cultures living and working in the UK, I was looking inside myself trying to explore my national identity . I was finding that I felt like a foreigner in my own country , but I am not English in England either- ‘ vague national identity’ -as a double base player from Kiev put it.

As always, I have so many thoughts and feelings to go through after the trip to my dear Ukraine . It will take me some time to ‘mind-heart’ process them and I’ll treat you with some new songs that are coming from the Ukrainian land. In a meantime please enjoy this rehearsal with MuHa UA.

APSARA, April 24th

Read more about featured artists, the venue and rest of the details here