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Concert / Pop, Psychedelic, Jazz & Soul SOYUZ

Support: First Mote
© photos 1 & 3: SOYUZ by @johnny_cosmic / photo 2: First Mote

СОЮЗ (SOYUZ) is a creative collective originally from Minsk, Belarus, now based in Warsaw, Poland. The band consists of composer, arranger and singer Alex Chumak and one of the key figures of the Belarusian underground scene Mikita Arlou, both musicians are multi-instrumentalists and are producing their releases themselves. In Warsaw, they were recently joined by Polish drummer and producer Albert Karch. The name of the band is translated as union”, which reflects the creative nature of the relationship between its members. 

SOYUZ’s previous albums explored and reimagined the legacy of jazz-oriented, mostly non-English-language pop music of the 20th century with a crave for musical freedom. For their third album, released by the UK-based label Mr Bongo, there is a stronger focus influenced by Música popular Brasileira, building bridges from it to present-day Belarus. Alex notes that from the moment he first encountered Brazilian music, he found in it a kind of concentrated emotion that felt as if it were familiar to him from his childhood. This non-verbal emotion and connection between the listener and musician echoes in the music, regardless of understanding of the language the album is recorded in.

For fans of:

Orions Belte, Khruangbin

СОЮЗ – Калі ты запытаеш / If You Ask (Official

After pre-pubescent jam sessions in a garage, digging into the heavy riffs and rhythms of Soul Sacrifice, TNT and Little Wing, Jamie Reinert and Christophe Demart, a.k.a. First Mote, have finally gotten round to getting some stuff on tape. It’s taken around 20 years, but their instrumental communion is as rough as ever. Electric baritone guitar and drums are at the centre of things since neither of them have the courage to sing.