MuHa blog

As a part of MuHa new album which is due to be released in the spring 2010, we took up a challenge to make a video for our song Richenka (from Ukranian: River) with no funding, but with lots of enthusiasm and combined creative energy of the people involved. The choice of the song was obvious – it is a quintessential mix of what we are trying to do as an Eastern European band in the UK.

Richenka was written in a traditional Ukrainian folk music style and has a theme typical to folklore of many cultures. It is performed with African instrument Beriumbau, which is used in Brasilian Capoeira martial arts. The rhythm of Richenka is also enhanced by Indian rhythm Kathak.

More posts about the process and the progress of our video (ad)venture; about the people who got involved, will follow later (watch this space!), for now is the story:

A girl looses a guy she dearly loves because the River of Life offers
him pleasures he can not resist. The guy gets enchanted by the lively
and beautiful, but evil spirits that play deadly game with his mind and the guy
forgets about his real life and Love. The girl doesn’t see any other
way then to drown herself in a river and become one of the rusalkas.

read the translation of the lyrics of Richenka here.

Continue to read Music Video Diary Part 1. The Peak District.

At one of the events during Black History month I met Jean Binta Breeze- a Caribbean woman, a poet and writer. This woman struck me with her strong feeling of her roots. ’We need to understand where we come from in order to point out where we are in life and define our future.’

She put in simple few words those thoughts and feelings that I was researching in my design degree and writing songs about for the last six years, but never managed to outline so precise as she did.

Binta was talking about assimilation and integration.
Assimilation is when you come from one culture to another and become a part of the new the community, acquiring it’s properties, but loose what you had.
Integration is when you bring your culture into a new environment and share it, put it in a pot and stay open minded – then we surround ourselves by the rich culture.

I will let this to be my answer to a question why I do not sing in English

I’ve heard on the radio this morning that is it a National Poetry Day today. And I thought about Jerry Hope- a famous Derby’s poet, creative writer, musician , a founder of The Dust Collectors and an inspiration for so many people who new him and his work. He left this world in the spring 2008, still very young and full of creative energy. Who knows where his soul wanders now…

The following Jerry’s words were taken from the catalogue form George Harris website.

Jerry Hope
Ghosts

Landscapes change.
People move.
And become someone else.
And Disappear.

Times and structures topple, pushing the future forward. Technological development accelerates, moving faster and faster towards a point of simultaneity where tomorrow turns in on itself.
Truth disappears amongst the dust, amongst the plastic wrappers, the nuclear waste, the Fox News; amongst yesterday’s high-street fashions and fire-and-forget weaponries. ‘New, new, new!’ Tony Blair told a meeting of European leaders soon after entering office, ‘everything is new!’ But it’s hard to change a landscape without disturbing graves. What cadavers are we unearthing in our constant search for regeneration? What creatures from the pasts will return to haunt us?
Jerry Hope

by Iryna Muha

What is a face, really? Its own photo? Its make-up? Or is it a face as painted by such or such painter? That which is in front? Inside? Behind? And the rest? Doesn’t everyone look at himself in his own particular way? Deformations simply do not exist.
Pablo Picasso

An Absent Face is a portrait of the mask-maker Stephen Jon. 20 minutes film by Gaylan Nazhad. 2009

An Absent Face will be screened in 9th October 2009 for the first time at Nottingham Trent University (the student union in the Byron House No.11) Refectory, Byron House (City).

An Absent Face (Trailer) from Gaylan Nazhad on Vimeo.

MuHa is always looking for collaborations in search of a unique sound and a good creative time together.

I thought I’d introduce our band members as of today, but I also hope that we will grow with more authentic sounds of traditional instruments from different parts of the world.

So, if you think we can do something together, don’t be shy- get in touch, email us to: music@muha.co.uk

Ok, here we go:

-Iryna Muha- singer, song writer, guitar, harmonica, jews-harp, responsible for keeping the band busy.

-Louise Clements- rhythms, mood percussion, back singer, adventurous spirit, idea generator with the following idea realisation.

-Dmitry Fedotov- solo guitar, recordings, mastering, the Ear and conscious mind of the band, a time keeper, if simply – the Master.

-Richard Kensington- percussion of all kinds, always responsible, optimistic and supportive even after very bad gigs in Mansfield.

-Richard Grindon- a crazy percussionist in a good sense with a vast variety of drumming experience, a fire juggler and a charity supporter.

-Claire Stewart – violin player, young and cheerful spirit coming to gigs on a bike in her big helmet after a working day in a prison hospital.

Iryna Muha

MuHa is an international group of creative people with different walks of life who put together their skills, passion for music and their hearts to play mainly Slavonic influenced music with the  the mix of various musical traditions from around the world.

Muha was a school nickname of Iryna Mouchinska, a song writer and a singer in the band, which simply means “fly” in Russian. Although MuHa does create a good buzz in in Nottingham and surrounding areas,  the music of MuHa  is rather calming; spacing out the listener to the peaceful and philosophical state of mind.

Life is a journey with sometime unexpected turns. But  everything comes and everything goes. See beyond the  hassle of everyday life, watch the signs on your way and feel the fabric of life- it is all Music.

Photo by Alan Harris