„Badische Zeitung”, March 15, 2007
Music that rushes from a soul
Festival „Weiler String Time” presented the Ukrainian folk band „Hudaki” for German public.
1400 km from Weil on Rhein, place where three countries meet, there is Nyzhnye Selysche, a village in Transcarpathia. The visitors of festival were able to be dipped for a while in the atmosphere of that place, be heard, as local musicians play on the weddings (which can last a few days in a row), to feel the touch of the special musical whirlwind on Tuesday in a club „Old town Hall”. Band, which modestly names itself „Hudaki”, that translated simply „musicians”, is already stroked performance by itself which probably will be registered in memory of all visitors of concert for a long time. For five years the group gives worldwide concerts (...)
Music that just quietly and unnoticed winded around a stage, instantly broke into the hall with reckless. Submerged in warm light, dissolving fully in the music, musicians played popooree that contained chardash, polka, ballads, and perceptible a-capella songs. All of it brightly contrasted with the tender singing of shepherd’s flute and incomprehensible moan of violin, thin voice of guitar and pulsating rhythm of traditional tambourine.
Concert of Hudaki is more than just music. It is the real, not far-fetched, living and spontaneous presentation. But a not traditional dress does appearance truly authentic. The special role is given to the body language that is clear without any translation, and that gives the special expression for the melodies. Leading singer Katya smiles slyly, her eyes shine and look somewhere far back in the distance. She paints every note of song with her strong and eccentric voice, and carries it into the hall; and these songs succeed to convert such banal workaday life into poetic strophes.
Transcarpathia is a region on the south-west of Ukraine. It is the Ukrainian border with Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland. Hudaki sing about different sides of life, about the desire and dreams. By singing they retell the most ancient histories, and in such a way preserve the cultural inheritance of the region. They cause a smile at the listeners; engage them to commiseration, participation and action. They pass music in the crowds, and at the same time dissolve in the own creation. „Without the pedagogical loading”, as they say, a lighthearted, natural urge to the expression of the soul.
Daniella Buch

Watch our new music video!!!
Camera: Yuri Kazakov and Ivan Sautkin (Kiev)
Montage: Cédric Zoenen and Yuri Kazakov (Brussels)
Sound: Jeff Levillain (Brussels).
Shooted in the village Vodycya, Transcarpathia, July 2007


Journeys... Concerts... Projects...

Hi everybody!
After a summer travelling by the long roads of Eastern Europe (Maramures in Romania, Festival Sheshory in Vinnitsa, UA and Lemkivska Vatra, PL), in September and October we decided to play in our Carpathians. In November, we are planning to leave for Switzerland and Netherlands! Sounds great!

Future concerts >>>

Multi-media projects
Hudaki performances can be accompanied with visual information:
Documental film of Jara Malevez (Switzerland, Stans; 2005) about life of one Transcarpathian village of Lopuhovo.
The photo exhibition of the famous Ukrainian photographer Aleksander Glyadyelov (Kyiv) about everyday life of Lopuhovo village. (Photoreport from 2003 - 2005)