Danylo Vinarikov Ensemble with Friends: Industrial Song
Review by Kateryna Ziabliuk
Danylo Vinarikov Ensemble with Friends
Industrial Song
(Seventh Lane Records, 2020)
Ukrainian jazz has never been developing in a single direction. Each city is like a separate entity that has been independently promoting its own idea for years. It's a pleasure to watch how this divergence of ideas is growing and enriched with images that could be used to describe them.
This is what happened with the jazz from Dnipro: its character is melancholy, inspired by wandering around the monolithic city. Saxophonist Danylo Vinarikov is one of the members of Dark Side Trio, which maintains this character in its music. He recorded his album Industrial Song with the same message, together with Dark Side Trio, but in a slightly expanded vein. In addition to the regular musicians - pianist Mykhailo Lyshenko, drummer Dmytro Lytvynenko and Danylo Vinarikov - bassist Serhiy Artemov, trumpeter Yakiv Tsvetinsky and guitarist Kostyantyn Ivchuk joined the recording. Thus, the band was named Danylo Vinarikov Ensemble with Friends.
The name Industrial Song alone suggests a kind of challenge. Sometimes it seemed as if this was a call to the composition as well - the character of the music remained "Darkside-ish", but the structure became more complex and weighty with the emergence of new instruments, polyphony and expressive counterpoint. The strong melodies in unison and in two voices also look like a challenge - in "Industrial Song", "Presence", "Haiku" and "Anthem" they are also accompanied by a rough riff on bass or piano. Tsvietinsky's trumpet adds a poetic melody to this harshness, similar to the manner of Ambrose Akinmusiri or Kenny Wheeler.
The compositions often feature an image of a city (such as the eponymous "Industrial Song", "Zeppelinstrasse" and "Ghost City") or a sense of being lost - perhaps in the same city - and trying to accept it for yourself. It seems that this is exactly what "Anabiosis" and "Zeppelinstrasse" are about, concentrating the main weightlessness of the album.
"Anabiosis" begins with a saxophone intro and barely audible cymbal echoes, followed by a minimalist theme that imperceptibly turns into an equally cold and calculating piano solo. With the appearance of the guitar, this mood develops even further - with only one chord remaining, Ivchuk starts with long chords on the volume pedal and continues with unexpectedly abrupt phrases, which, after all, is very typical of his style. The final theme merely summarises what has been played - and just as discreetly.
This is a successful transition to the calm ode to Frankfurt, “Zeppelinstrasse”, where Vinarikov plays the theme in unison with the bass over an airy piano melody. At the beginning of the solo, the drums appear, and this composition does not change until the end of the composition.
"Anthem" probably means a lot to its author. It seems as if it symbolises the stage when you stop being surprised by a difficult situation and start firmly defending your vision of its resolution, keeping difficult experiences in mind. It is passionate and very contemplative - the shape of the parts hardly changes, and it is subordinated to the counterpoint of the piano and the trance-like rhythm of the drums. Once again, the poetics of the trumpet does its job, creating a beautiful epic image.
Music always needs a story behind it. If the listener also finds their own in the music, then this music will always be valuable and necessary. The album Industrial Song is like an ethnic code that can be understood by the Ukrainian mentality; listening to it, we can recreate in our imagination many everyday scenes that we constantly see in front of us. That's why this music is perfect for looking at the city, grey and coloured, watching its changes and how it affects us.