It is quite probable that you know this choir quite well - we also present it not for the first time. Today, however, it will present itself in a different and even quite unusual role. The point is that "Vydubychi" is a church choir, that is why exactly church music usually makes up their repertoire. But at this disc you will hear Ukrainian folk songs performed by this choir. And do you happen to know, what is specific about that? The performance of simple Ukrainian folk songs by this particular choir gives them a new quality and emphasises new and interesting sides. I mean, these songs at this disc sound somehow strictly, greatly, spiritually in that sense which is meant in connection with the church singing. Natural melodiousness of both Ukrainian language and, as they say, people’s soul is quite evident for everybody who listens to Ukrainian songs. Still, thanks to such choirs as "Vydubychi", this natural melodiousness and the singing itself gain – and I am sure to say that – holiness and purity. Moreover, it gains holiness and purity in an irreligious sense. Because I think that spirituality, holiness and purity appeared long before any temples did.
Anton Jozhik Leyba (Hedgehog)
, Toronto, C