Leleka - Sonce U Serci (CD)

Release Date: 09/17/21

Leléka are delighting people with songs which are modern jazz but have their roots in the folk music of Ukraine.

It was a special moment. Burghausen in March 2018, Wackerhalle, LELÉKA entered the stage. The night before, the band had been crowned the winner of the International Young Jazz Competition. Now it could prove that the musicians were capable of going beyond the fireworks of a short con-cert to charm an audience in a large hall that did not yet know them. It turned out to be a triumph. More competitions soon followed, more successes, and so it became clear that the band, which had come together in Berlin in 2016 and had already shone as winners at the 6th Global Music Contest creole 2017 in Berlin, claimed a place for itself in the European jazz scene. Jazz only partially captures the idea behind the music. It is the creative basis, rhythmically and for-mally based on improvisational freedom. Harmonically, however, there are chamber jazz and folk-lore elements. Melodically, in articulation and phrasing, Viktoria Leléka clearly and strikingly follows folk music models of her Ukrainian homeland. For her, it is the centre of the music and that is also what makes it so radiant. For it is not a question of colouring, but of connecting traditions, right down to the subtleties of emotion that her voice conveys even beyond the language. From the very beginning, bassist Thomas Kolarczyk and drummer Jakob Hegner have helped her realise the con-cept, and since 2019, pianist Povel Widestrand has also been part of the LELÉKA team (which inci-dentally means 'stork' in English, a Ukrainian symbol for spring, happiness.
Some songs are about happiness and love, many draw directly on folk music originals or adapt their es-prit. Current topics ranging from concern for nature to the monument to human hubris, Chornobyl, are also part of the repertoire. At the core, however, it is about confidence, musically, atmospheri-cally, conveyed through the power of the melodies and the personalities who dedicate themselves to them.