Go_A

About

" Pagan magic cast at a nightclub "

Go_A, one of the core groups of the Ukrainian electro folk scene, formed back in 2012. It took a year for Taras Shevchenko to get together a bunch of musicians in order to create the ethno-electronic band. The mystique of “the black swan” represented by now lead vocalist Kateryna Pavlenko was yet to rise at the time. It’s been said that the line-up of the band has changed 14 times since 2012, which is why the music has also shape shifted through the years.

The first highs happened in 2015, when the song ‘Vesnianka’ hit the radio charts. The following year the band released their debut album ‘Idy Na Zvuk’ (Ukr. Follow the Tune). In 2020 Go_A were chosen to represent Ukraine at the Eurovision song contest with the song ‘Solovey’. The cancellation of the contest in 2020 gave the band time to pick another song. At Eurovision 2021 Go_A, with the song ‘Shum’, finished in 5^th place, while in the public vote ‘Shum’ was placed second.

There are four members in Go_A’s  current guise: Taras Shevchenko (keyboards, sampler, percussion), Kateryna Pavlenko (lead vocal, percussion), Ivan Hryhoriak (guitar) and Ihor Didenchuk (svirel). All of them (apart from multi-instrumentalist Ihor whose ability to play instruments now spreads to at least 30 different options) had a hard rock background. Taras used to play in a rap group, and Kateryna directed multiple folk ensembles, including a veterans’ choir. All that awareness of different genres, Kateryna’s spiky voice (a type of traditional singing style that she inherited from her grandmother) combined with authentic instruments from all around the world (including African drums and Australian didgeridoo) created that very vibe of pagan magic cast at a nightclub.

Take all that and add the contemporary post-pandemic scenery the band used for the ‘Shum’ music video in one version, plus the post-apocalyptic aesthetics in the Eurovision version, and you get the picture: authentic roots that go deep, but a style that looks towards the future. It feels fairly odd now, in 2022, to watch the steam-punky music video for the Eurovision contest in which a militaristic car rides across the country that is covered in snow. Somewhat prophetic. The good thing is that it all ends well, the strong symbolic woman with an eagle on her arm and a bunch of young dancing people wake up in the spring. That future might not be bright, but it does promise us the ability to dance, rather fiercely.

Photo : Anastasiia Mantach