Ganna

In the organizer's words:

For Ukrainian-born Ganna Gryniva, old folk songs from her homeland are a matter close to her heart - and a real musical treasure trove. Her critically acclaimed album HOME (with the GANNA Ensemble) has already caused a sensation with its emotionally charged, jazz-tinged arrangements - Bayerischer Rundfunk called HOME "(...) certainly an album of the year, poignant, powerful, magnificently sung and played!".
The follow-up KUPALA (Berthold records, 2023), on which Gryniva works with loops, samples and other effects, sounds much more electronic. Here, too, the Berliner-by-choice skillfully combines different sensory worlds from jazz to Ukrainian folk to experimental music, always with a strong reference to the original themes of the Ukrainian singing tradition such as love, mourning and the connection between everyday life and nature.

She has repeatedly traveled to her old homeland to rummage through archives for traditional folk songs and record the songs of her grandmothers and grandfathers. She now presents these finds in her solo pieces - in an extremely original way. On the album, produced together with Tomáš Kaspar from London, Gryniva is supported on some pieces by Swiss drummer Julian Sartorius. When listening, it quickly becomes clear that the technology used is not an end in itself, but serves to emphasize the pulse of the music - as in the winter ballad Hanya or the love song Obrutch. Ganna likes songs that radiate optimism and joie de vivre, and on her solo album she has accentuated and elaborated this energy in a completely different way.

Two tracks from KUPALA can also be heard in the award-winning documentary Life after Butscha (Grimme Prize, 2023), which deals with Russian war crimes in the Ukrainian town of Butscha. The film's director, Mila Teshaieva, was so impressed by Gryniva's music that she used two pieces for the documentary. Gryniva: Lebidonka is about Cossacks defending their country while their relatives at home pray that they will return home unharmed. And Misto is a love song. Overall, this is an extremely powerful and in some ways challenging film. On the one hand, because it grips the viewer and confronts them with great sadness. On the other hand, because it shows in a touching way how strong the survivors are mentally and how they support each other in rebuilding.
Together with filmmaker Peter Bräunig, Gryniva has also completed her own documentary Spivanka.

The film conveys impressions of her trip to Ukraine in 2018: "There are scenes in which I talk to old women who sing for me and tell me their life stories." The film penetrates deep into the soul of Ukrainian folk music - thanks to its protagonists, who remember the music of their childhood and preserve it in their memories by passing it on orally. It is these images and scenes that underline the independent and autonomous identity of the Ukrainian people. "Spivanka" was shown as part of the WOMEX music expo 2023, which took place in A Coruña/Spain at the end of October. GANNA will play her own showcase at WOMEX 2024.
She has also just released a new single: Mermaids. The track is inspired by a ritual folklore song from the Kyiv region, which is sung during Mermaid Week. During this week, people allowed the mystical creatures of nature to run riot and hoped to be undisturbed by them for the rest of the year.

Photos ©Doville Sermokas