Songs Released To Help Ukraine
100% Of All Downloads Of These Tracks, Goes To Charities Helping All Ukranian People And Their Pets, Affected By This Tragic Invasion
You can support 6TH CROWD by downloading this single, available via Bandcamp and Apple Music. All proceeds will support the humanitarian work of Vostok SOS, which includes helping people evacuate and providing humanitarian aid and psychosocial support, including hotlines for affected people and a team on the ground in the region, coordinating aid. You can also add this single to your Spotify playlists. But the most important thing right now is to support Ukraine. You can donate to humanitarian missions, directly to the army, spread awareness about this ugly war, and join demonstrations in your city. There are also many other ways you can help Ukraine now and numerous options for supporting humanitarian aid efforts in the region.
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6th Crowd - SokolonkoUkraine-based electronic producer 6TH CROWD (a.k.a. Dari Maksymova) presents her new single 'Sokolonko', inspired by an old harvest song. This is the first offering from the album 'Step' (the Ukrainian word for Steppe), which she was working on when Russia invaded Ukraine, turning the country into a war zone. "This is a Ukrainian song from Donbas, my dear home region, which Russia is tearing apart right now. I didn’t know if I’d have a chance to do it later. In my research, as I learned more about folk Ukrainian music, I noticed that modern culture has plenty of references to music from western and central parts of my country, but nothing from the east. Nothing from my home. Culturally it simply didn’t exist. So I decided I wanted to change that balance and bring songs from East Ukraine back to life, to remind myself and everyone that Donbas is a historical part of Ukraine, no matter how badly Putin wants to destroy it," says Dari Maksymova. "If people don’t remember their own history, someone can rewrite it for them. And then come with guns to “defend” Russian people in Ukraine, Moldova, or Serbia."
"Over a week ago, Russia invaded Ukraine, shelling cities and killing hundreds of civilians. The Russian president calls it a “special operation” for “saving Russian-speaking people.” A more accurate term for it is “war”. And even more accurately is the intention behind this war: Russification, and Russification is cultural genocide. It’s clear that the ancient Greeks don’t exist, but we know of them because their cultural artifacts have been preserved. In the absence of their books, literature and artwork, we wouldn’t otherwise know anything about them as a people. Their history would simply cease to exist. That’s the goal of Russification - to remove all of the distinct and unique ethnic histories and merge them into one," says Dari Maksymova. "When Communists gathered different nations under the umbrella of the USSR, they desperately needed to rewrite history. They needed everyone to share the same bland fake ethnicity, they needed people to forget their roots. So people would never get second thoughts about belonging to ‘the great empire”, never question orders and the party line. While, in newlybuilt cities, their Russification program was going pretty well, people in villages continued to be a real pain in the ass. They lived and worked far from centralized sources of information and relied on the government very little… and didn’t rush to become Soviet people. Yes, they lived in the Soviet Union and yes, they worked in Soviet fields, but one thing they did that drove the Russians crazy: the villagers spoke Ukrainian and sang their own songs." She adds: "Before people had Spotify, they sang to themselves - while working in fields, while fighting, getting married… they sang all the time. Those songs passed from one to another, along with very important information about people. What language they spoke, what they believed, what they hoped, who their heroes were. Songs from people are also songs about people." |
100% of Bandcamp proceeds will be donated in support of two charities carrying out humanitarian work on the ground in Ukraine - Red Cross Ukraine and Razom For Ukraine - each of them covering slightly different areas of aid. Download the single via Bandcamp and learn how you can support Ukraine and its people at this critical moment in world history
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Nick Hudson - Lights SvobodaBritish avant pop artist Nick Hudson presents his new single, entitled 'Lights Svoboda' (translates as 'Lights Freedom'), recorded together with Kianna Blue, his bandmate in The Academy of Sun .All proceeds will go towards charities directly involved in humanitarian aid efforts in Ukraine. While the framework of the song 'Lights Svoboda' originated six years ago during the epic recording sessions for The Academy Of Sun’s 2020 opus album 'The Quiet Earth', it didn't end up being included on that album. Now, global reality has tragically and uncannily come to resonate with the song’s poetically fractured scenes of dictatorship, nuclear threat and razed landscapes. Returning from a month in the formerly Soviet republic of Georgia and watching in horror as Russia launched its attack on Ukraine, Nick felt desperate to apply his skill set to a tangible purpose within the crisis and here we have it - a desolate hymn woven with the plaintive vocals of Kianna Blue and the haunting schisms of the Faemi M1 analogue synth. "The opening features a recording I made in Georgia, into my Soviet cassette recorder, of my 20- year-old Russian exile friend who fled to Georgia to avoid facing criminal charges for protesting Navalny’s imprisonment. I had him say “freedom, hope and truth” in Russian. He’s headed to join the Ukrainian army this week," says Nick Hudson. "It features myself on piano, voice, Soviet analogue synth, melodica and field recordings, and Kianna Blue on backing vocals and bass. Originally written for The Quiet Earth but now uncannily and undesirably relevant.'
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