20 Ukrainian girls’ projects

30.12.2020

The 8th of March is a regular occasion to think whether there are enough women bands and projects in Ukraine that would inspire the younger generations of girls to create the musical culture. This list proves that there are lots of girls on the scene. Also the skew toward certain musical genres still remains. 

Recently the vocalist/guitarist of Ai Laika! Lera Guevska wrote in her playlist that there was the time when she really wanted to play guitar but lacked a role model. Fortunately, the situation has improved considerably now, though the distribution of roles did not change much – there are traditionally enough of female vocalists, especially in pop music, but girls who play drums or guitar still must be seek among hundreds of male musicians. In some genres the situation is absolutely critical. For example, how many girls of Ukrainian hardcore or black metal bands can you name? In general, this picture is confirmed by information collected by Radio Aristocrats for the year of 2018. It is unlikely that the situation in Ukraine has changed a lot in a year. 

At the same time, everyone has internet, so all the world’s information is just a few clicks away. But it is important to see not only the example of conditional Sleater-Kinney or Sløtface (ed. bands with feminist lyrics and position), because whatever it is, the life realities in USA or Norway are completely different Ukrainian ones. That’s why we need to have as many of our own examples as possible. You will agree that although the riot grrrl movement is inspiring, the history of evolution of Ai Laika! or Ilinx is much more real, because it happened here, next to us, so the "yes I can" factor is much stronger.   

 

So in this article I have collected 20 Ukrainian bands or projects created exclusively by girls or those where they are key figures. These artists are not necessarily feminists, but by supporting their work with a penny or an invitation to perform at any event or at least by reposting and commenting them on social media can help the music promotion among other girls in these hard times. 

Sidus Atrum (death doom)

The Project was founded in late 2015th by Julia Lykhotvor, as one-girl band. The first album "Cold Silence" was dedicated to depression and self-awareness. The release is special because although in the niche of doom metal in Ukraine you can meet female vocalists and female musicians, but it is quite difficult to remember an analogue where one girl would be the author of the whole release. 

 

Ieschure (black metal)

This is black metal project from the city of Rivne, which was founded in the early 2016th by Lilita Arndt musician. Themes of her songs focus on the occult themes, witchcraft and death. Lilita released her debut album "The Shadow" in 2017 on CDs and vinyl with the support of Iron Bonehead Production label. There were no new releases after that album, but the girl remains active on Bandcamp. Like the previous one, this release is unique for the fact that one girl is fully responsible for the vocals, all the instruments, and the girls in Ukrainian black metal, except Lilita, are not easy to recollect. 

 

Marisha (experimental)

Marisha Volnyh previously played in the project Phooey! and was the vocalist of old Garage Punk / Riot Grrrl band Buzz Flowers. And in 2018th, as part of her own project, Marisha released the experimental "home" album "The Little Piece of Summertime Fun", in which she used variety of soft, sound effects, recordings, samples, guitar and ukulele, She dedicated her release to her favorite poetry.

 

Regina Collage (electropop/synthpop)

The project was created by Kharkiv musician Regina Zheleznyakova, a member of H.Soror, City of Me and nearr. Now she also plays in band named Продукты (Products) with Pavlo Olefirenko (project Pilikayu) and for the last few years she has been writing material for her own music project Regina Collage. Her debut album "Mental Health" was released on cassettes last year. In addition, Regina is known as an artist and recently an exhibition of her collages was held in Lviv.

 

Люсі (synth-pop)

Khrystyna Varlamova created the project Люсі in March of 2017th, when she debuted with the video "Досить" ("Enough"). Her next work "Марія Магдалина" ("Mary Magdalene") was released six months later in September, and the debut album "Enigma", of which the singer talked repeatedly appeared only this month. Khrystyna worked with several composers in it, but she emphasized that Люсі it is not a duo, and she usually performs by her own, because that is her concept. 

 

Анна Васильченко (medieval folk)

Anna Vasylchenko is known, first of all, because of her participation in the eastern European ensemble of historical music Kings & Beggars, and other projects, from grindcore to celtic punk. She also recorded violin parts for the 1914 album. In 2018th the musician released her first solo mini album "Age of Glory". Anna studied at the Lysenko National Musical Academy in Lviv, where she specialized in violin. Later the girl mastered a number of historical musical instruments.

 

sophistication. (indie folk)

This Kyiv-based project was created by musician Sofia Schwager who combines acoustic guitar and her own voice to achieve a minimalist and calm sound. The artist released her debut album "Looming" in May 2019 and EP "pink flower" (2019). In addition, Sofia is the specialist in literary and the author of articles about cinema, books and music, and her love of texts is clearly seen in the lyrics. The girl was also noticed to be a guest vocalist in Blooms Corda and the electronic project Heinali. It is also important that guitar folk in its introverted form is not the most common music in Ukraine, and sophistication. is almost the only girl’s project in this niche. 

 

Katarina Gryvul (idm, ambient) 

Kateryna Gryvul is a composer and violinist studying electroacoustic in the University of Krakow. The girl is mainly engaged in contemporary academic music, but earlier this year she released her debut album "inside the creatures", in which you can find elements of IDM, dreampop and ambient. Among the Ukrainian electronic projects such one like Palmo X by Lviv musician Ksenia Nema is also worth mentioning. 

 

Grisly Faye (electronic)

This is an electronic project of musician Margarita Kulichova. The girl has released mini album called "Drown" (2014), the album "From Far Away" (2016) and a lot of singles and music videos. Margarita’s desire to constantly develop and study is fascinating. Thus, in 2018 she was the participant of the One Beat exchange program for musicians in the United States, and in 2019th as a part of master’s program Kino Eyes met director Anastasia Maksimchuk and wrote, as a result, the sountrack to the film "Вугілля" ("Coal"). Margarita currently lives in Scotland, where she is working on her new album. 

 

protoU (drone/dark ambient)

The project by Oleksandra Puzan from Kyiv, whose discography includes several full-length alums, collaborations and a split. Her releases, including the last LP "Anomalies" (2019), were released by the cult label of the genre from Oregon Cryo Chamber. From the very beginning of her way as the musician, protoU reflected the attitude to natural processes through the music. But this is the case when listening to music is easier than describing it. 

 

Renevich (emo)

Maya Renevich is a vocalist in bands the worst is yet to come, neyemia grue, and she also has a solo project named renevich, however, not very active for the last time. But now you can hear Maya’s voice in the recent releases of two bands mentioned above. Within the history of Ukrainian screamo scene, girls in the bands is not such uncommon thing, but along with the decline of this scene their number has decreased. So as of 2020, Maya is almost the only Ukrainian screamo female vocalist. 

 

Death Pill (hardcore punk)

This Kyiv based hardcore/punk band was formed in 2017th by three girls, namely Anastasia Khomenko (Crackpot, Thaino!) and Mariana Navrotska (Exult). The third girl has changed for several times (Natasha Steel, McFlarane Krause), and now Oleksandra Ponomarenko is the bass player in the band, who learned to play bass guitar specially for this. The band is quite active but cannot boast of a large number of releases yet due to the mentioned band members changes.

 

Hindu (indie)

Dreampop project of Tetyana Yankovska from Kyiv who writes songs by herself in the home studio. In 2016th her debut EP "Spark" was released on London label RMN Music, and her first full-length album "Scars" was released in 2019th by the Californian label Manimal Vinyl, which previously worked with Warpaint and Yoro Ono. Hindu often performs in Ukraine as well as in Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Tunisia, Poland and other countries. 

 

Olive Taud (rap)

Speaking of female-rappers, let’s mention alyona alyona here in one sentence only, because it is so enough of her in Ukrainian infospace now that you definitely haven’t missed her (as well as Alina Pash). Instead, I want to pay more attention to the Dnipro rapper Olive Taud, formerly known as Олдскульний Ніндзя (Oldschool Ninja). Her flow was quickly recognized to be unique for the Ukrainian scene. After her last full-length album "Останній динозавр" ("The Last Dinosaur") (2017) the girl kept silence for a long time and in 2019 she decided to change the sound of the project to more modern one and therefore began to write music under the new name. Olive Taud already has several singles and music videos.  

 

dobra (rap)

Chernivtsi hip-hop artist dobra released her first full-length album "dobraтися" ("to get there") in 2016, where she demonstrated her original style on the edge of hip-hop, indie and electronic music. After that Anastasia Shevchuk released a few more singles and appeared in some feats, but in general her new releases appear quite slowly. The girl is also engaged in videogaming streams.

 

Fo Sho (rap)

Afro-Ukrainian hip-hop project that was found in the early 2019th in Kharkiv. The band consists of three sisters – Betty, Zion and Miriam Endale. The singers were born and raised in Ukraine. Their parents came from Ethiopia in the 1980s and after Betty was born, they decided to settle down in Kharkiv. The band currently has several singles.

 

Chillera (dub)

The band begins its history in the Crimea, where Hanna Bryzhata (bass) and Polina Matskevych (guitar, Mlin Patz) worked on construction, playing musical instruments in their free time, and later moved to Odesa, where they were joined by current drummer Anastasia Marykuta. They are currently released on the Muscut label and actively tour within Europe. Chilerra’s ultimate mini album "Pro Fun" (2019) continues the line of lo-fi soothing garage dub, separating from the surf rock, that took place on previous girls’ EP, which was also released on vinyl.

 

Ядовитая собачья слюна (experimental)

This Kyiv avant-garde project was created by Natasha Lushnykova and Zhenya Stepanenko in the mid-2017th. The same year they released two albums at once: "В гостях у колдуна" ("Visiting the sorcer") and "люсичка" ("Lusichka"). The duo’s work combines vivid absurd forms and self-irony, and their life concerts can be called real performances.

 

Zavoloka (techno, ambient)

Kateryna Zavoloka – composer of experimental electronic music, sound artist and designer from Kyiv (but now based in Berlin). The musician is constantly involved in various cross-genre projects. Also she is responsible for the visual part of KVITNU label, on which all her latest works were released. In the fall of 2018th, Zavoloka completed a series of releases dedicated to four main natural elements, having released the album "Promeni".

 

DIYana (indie) 

Under the nickname Yana Soule, Kyiv singer Yana Dryupina has two releases out. This is the debut album "Дайте Слово Яне" ("Give a word to Yana") (2015) and "Трио" (2017), mini album ("Trio") (2017) which stood out with interesting lyrics. However, in 2018 Yana changed her nickname to DIYana, thus emphasizing her versatility as the girl began to write music, lyrics, constructs beats, to make compilations and even shoot videos. In the new role (and with a new sound) DIYana’s mini album "Бери, сияй" ("Take, Shine") was released the same year. Meanwhile, the singer is in the creative vacation due to the birth of a child. By the way, her soul colleague Elina Panika also has changed her genre recently and now writes electronic music under the nickname Elina Elian. 

 

I tried to focus on projects that are exclusively girls’ ones above, but there are mixed groups where girls play not the last, but even the main role. And these are also very good role models. For example: 

Earlier we also wrote about the role of women in rap music and how women fight for a place in music in general, from jazz to our time. 

Neformat.com.ua ©