ANDRUCHOWYCZ & KARBIDO

atlas

L.: Andrukhovych, Sikora, Czepułkowski, Otwinowski;
just before „Moscow”. Atlas Estremo, Rzeszów, 2015. Photo: DaPix


MUSIC 4 WORDS  4 MUSIC
Artistic project of famous Ukrainian writer Yuri Andrukhowych and Polish band Karbido means live mix of music and poetry with multimedia surrounding. Common poetic journey from 2005 with 7 concert programs: „Samogon” (2005), „Cynamon (z dodatkiem Indii)” (2010), „Absinthe” (2013), „Aperitif” (2014), „Atlas Estremo” (2015), „V.S.O.P” (2016), „Litografie” (2017). 5 CD albums was published both in Poland and Ukraine and each time supported by huge tournees around UA/PL territories. Projects were also presented in Germany (f.ex. Berlin Literaturfestival), Moldavia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

Below:
„Karbidarium” – video-installation/archive-footage, dedicated to 10-years anniversary of cooperation.
Work was presented in BookFest Arsenal in Kiev, 2016.


PROJECTS

in chronological order from the latest works:

 

litocd

LITOGRAFIE / 2017

Yuri Andrukhowych (voc, txt)
Ihor Hnydyn (dr, kb)
Marek Otwinowski (bg)
Tomasz Sikora (bs, as, mix)

„Litografie” is their second „geographic” project – this time dedicated to the home town of Andrukhovych – with even more wild music than previous. Compositions for voice and trio dr / bs / bg were made to unknown in Poland poems from the cycle „Lithographs of the old Stanislaviv”. The program consists of seven images, filled with peculiar characters and mysterious events from town history, in the beat-generation-absurd music cover, and only in Ukrainian (the first Polish translation wrote by Otwinowski, is attached to the album). Besides, the project is attended by a famous Lviv composer and jazz drummer Ihor Hnydyn, who is also co-composer of album.

The program was created and recorded in the summer of 2016, in an old barn in the village of Świnoroje, on the edge of the Bialowieza Forest. Mixed in Manufaktura Dźwięku in Warszawa.
2016. Published in PL and UA 27. 1o.2017.

Booking 2018


atlasESTREMO

ATLAS ESTREMO / 2015

Yuri Andrukhovych (voc, txt)
Paweł Czepułkowski (dr)
Marek Otwinowski (bg, voc)
Tomasz Sikora (bs, as, samples)
and Ihor Hnydyn (dr) – since 2016

Listen on Bandcamp

The „geographical” album, composed for rewrited and modified parts of texts from the „Lexicon of intimate cities”. Of the 111 possibilities, the authors selected 12 cities – Berlin, Antwerp, London, New York, Moscow, Minsk, Kiev, Jerusalem, Lvov, Uzhgorod, Warsaw and Wroclaw – places where they were together or individually (except Moscow, where Karbido was never before, and Jerusalem, where Andrukhovych was not).

„Atlas Estremo” is the first album after „Trilogy”: the band breaks up with the aesthetics of the past, and heads for more radical, heavier, raw and improvised play. Texts drawn from prose and poetically shaped, gain rhythm and surprising power. Two-discs album, recorded in two live sessions with two language versions.

Texts was extracted and edited with the music/phrasing methods (by Otwinowski) and prepared for live exposition in power avant-jazz-rock music. Double recorded, 100% live – for Polish and Ukrainian versions of text (except „Minsk” – singed in belorussian, and New York – performed in a corporation’s language).  Published in PL and UA, as double-CD’s digipack, including a graphic „map” of this „Atlas”.

Produced and published by Hermetyczny Garaż.

Booking 2018


ABSYNT OBWOLUTA NADRUK.cdr

ABSINTHE / 2013

Yuri Andrukhovych (txt, voc)
Marcin Witkowski (dr)
Igor Gawlikowski (g, saw)
Marek Otwinowski (bg, voc)
Tomasz Sikora (kb, as, mix)

Listen on Bandcamp

III part of Trylogy; CD and concert DVD – this time music was composed to fragments of prose from the book „Perversions”. Composed as „concept album”, included intermissions and undfenied parts. „Absinthe” is a kind of soundtrack to unexisting movie – main element of concert design was lowered full size screen – video wall between the band and audience – and for half of the concert the presence of musicians was replaced by a video-arts projection („absence” was a keyword of project).

Huge tour in Ukraine and Poland was supported with visuals by Elżbieta Biryło, Ola Mychajluk (ArtPole), VJ Group Cube (UA) and „Meiko Shadōshiatā Theater” from Tokyo (JP).

Produced by Hermetyczny Garaż. DVD edited by Vj Group Cube.


CYNAMON_DGPACK_FRONT

CYNAMON (Z DODATKIEM INDII) / 2010

Yuri Andrukhovych (voc, txt)
Igor Gawlikowski (g)
Marek Otwinowski (bg, programming, voc)
Tomasz Sikora (kb, programming, mix)
Peter Conradin Zumthor (dr, perc)

Listen on Bandcamp

II part of „Trylogy”. Dark gallery of peculiarities from XiX-century Galicia, hidden, strange world in the shadow of Bruno Schulz and The Residents, among others, catched by Andruchowycz in poetry book „Egzotic birds and plants (with India)”.  Double editions (UA and PL) incl. CD and mini CD („Indie”). Music was recorded in plenty of places: Utrecht, Jerusalem, Chur, Ivano-Frankivsk, Wrocław… Electronic and concrete abstractions meets solid avant-post-rock beat and hipnotising voice…

Karbido group, a Polish and Swiss union, astonished its fans with surprising ease in fusing apparently distant soundings – not to mention perversity, which allowed them to brilliantly recreate into music sounds such as buzz of flapping pigeon wings or city murmurs.
LiteraturFest, Berlin, 2010

This is how The Residents could have sounded – provided they had been given opportunity to wallow in the Galician mire. Just awesome! 
Jarosław Szubrycht, Przekrój, 01.2010

„Cynamon” is unforgettable. Climatic, inspiring, so rich in hues and shades – worth to be discovered and rediscovered over and over.
Rafał Księżyk, Machina, 03.2010

Overall, next perfect jump of the Jurij’s band.
Filip Łobodziński, Newsweek, 03.2010

For most of the songs, artists from ArtPole Artistic Agency, with VJ Group Cube and Elżbieta Biryło created and directed original artistic videos, that were displayed during the concerts – as a stage design.


samogon

SAMOGON / 2005 (PL), 2006 (UA)

Listen on Bandcamp

Yuri Andrukhovych (txt, voc)
Paweł Czepułkowski (dr)
Michał Litwiniec (as, g, barimbao)
Igor Gawlikowski (g)
Marek Otwinowski (bg, voc)

First part of Andrukhowych & Karbido „Trylogy” was realised to poems from „Songs for dead rooster” (transl. to Polish by Bohdan Zadura), after a joint performance at „Poetry Port Festival” in Wrocław. Some poems actually had their musical version made by the Lviv group „Martvy piven” (literally „dead cock”). Karbido’s composed their own interpretations.

The program was produced in two language versions for the same multi-species music: alongside post-punk guitars, there are reggae, absurdish blues and old folklore themes (such a „Zelenaya Leszczynonka” – traditional XVII-century Cossack’s song.

It was first multilingual project of Karbido. And the beggining of the fantastic adventure.

Produced by Hermetyczny Garaż. Publishing by BL Record (PL 2005) and Nash Format (UA 2006)

Below: „The Very Best of Tabloids”.
Video created during the recording session; camera by Jakub Lech, editing by maot.