FUSION showcase: jazz under the modernist dome
May 05

How to integrate free jazz into the restrained, monumental modernism of the Ukrainian House? The ninth KYIVNESS WEEKEND hosted the debut showcase of FUSION jazz community: a 360 ° stage was set up in the middle of a huge cylindrical mine, where the best residents of the community performed.

Before, Fusion located at the lamp studio "SHOOM", the underground space of the HVLV bar and the production department near IZONE location.

“WE CREATED FUSION COMMUNITY OVER A YEAR AGO. OUR GOAL IS TO UNITE YOUNG MUSICIANS OF KYIV, GIVing THEM SPACE FOR COLLABORATIONS AND CREATIVE COMMUNICATION. WE WANT OUR RESIDENTS NOT JUST TO IMPROVISE, BUT CREATE ART IN REAL TIME. ”

Sasha Pinchuk, co-founder of FUSION

It was decided to try a new format that will highlight the transformation of the curated market into a cultural weekend: with lectures, movies, workshops and performances. This format was the showcase.

Jams have become something more: community, united by the desire to shake Ukrainian jazz and hip-hop culture.

“Usually we perform jams like this: musicians register, we select them, send invitations and then they are randomly grouped into teams and improvise in a certain harmony, which they choose on the spot. During the first year of Fusion, we've noticed that there are residents who communicate and interact perfectly in a creative sense. Why not show the result of this interaction?

We selected the brightest musicians - 21 residents, divided into 5 teams. The musicians had some time to prepare for the performance, but the structure of their compositions had a place for improvisation", - says Akim Karpach, one of the Fusion founders.


Each of the five teams had only one attempt and 10 minutes to get the most out of their instruments. Saxophone, synthesizers, piano, guitars and vocals gradually mixed hip-hop, jazz, funk and electronics. Genres changed several times during the performance.

Soulful freestyle, along with light vocals, merged with the syncopated rhythms of bass and drums, and the synthesizer riffs from New Wave grew into unrestrained saxophone solos. It was the spirit of free jazz of the 60s.

The evening closed with a performance of the experimental project Hyphen Dash, created by Fusion residents Mykhailo Birchenko (drums), Yevhen Pugachev (guitar, bass) and Daniil Zubkov (keyboards). Their tracks are both unpredictable, expressive instrumental plots, and sensual, bright compositions with the participation of Kyiv singer Anton Kramer.

Hyphen Dash's performance was the culmination of the first day of Kyivness and closed the Fusion showcase. Several hundred guests of the festival were able to see and feel how the new Kyiv jazz is reflected from the marble walls and scattered through the numerous corridors of the Ukrainian House.





Photo: Akim Karpach x Photovision

Words: Maksim Limansky

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