Disco Lemko

Anna Čeberenčyk is an ethnic Lemko, whose family was resettled near L’viv just after World War Two. She is also a pop star making a career out of recording and performing Rusyn folk music – arranged in modern styles. Čeberenčyk has found success both in Ukraine and in immigrant communities elsewhere. In September 2002, she played to a crowd of 100,000 at a Ukrainian festival in Toronto.

In one interview, Čeberenčyk explained, “I really want to elevate Lemko song, I would like to raise it to a high level, to let people know about it.” In the same interview, she said that “…I will help bring our culture to the young, I want to get their attention, to make them interested in the culture of their grandfathers and grand-mothers and to make them want to support those traditions and transfer them to the next generation.”

But she acknowledges that the path is not easy. “I know that many older people really do not like my music, they do not like its style. Folklore is more popular with them. But once again, I say that it is with this style that we will gain the support the young,” she said.

While we cannot yet speak of a true “Disco Lemko” movement, things do seem to be moving in that direction. Čeberenčyk is not the only Rusyn to have hit on the idea. The first event staged by the Association of Rusyn Youth of Slovakia, that country’s central organization for young Rusyns, was a concert called “Rusyn Folk Songs in the Lives of the Young,” held on 30 June 2002. The program included a performance of Rusyn folk songs in modern arrangements by Roland from Čirč who released an album in 2001.

Perhaps better known to American Rusyns is the band S-Harmony, which is doing virtually the same thing, though their music remains closer to its folk roots than Čeberenčyk’s. Their latest recording, A Better Way, includes many folk favorites, but the reworkings definitely have a much better chance of gaining popularity among the younger generation than the originals.

The concept of modernizing folk music is nothing new. Several examples in other cultures immediately spring to mind. In Russia, the band Ivan Kupala has released two albums which go even further than Čeberenčyk, putting traditional folk songs to techno music but also mixing in archival recordings of the songs in their original arrangements for a truly dazzling effect. In the 1990s, Poland was swamped with similar music, labeled “Disco Polo,” which became a huge industry. More notorious is Serbia’s “Turbofolk,” another variation on the same theme. This style became the soundtrack to that nation’s hyper nationalism in the 1990s and remains popular today, even elsewhere in the former Yugoslavia among the Croats and Bosnians, who fell victim to the nationalism the music espoused.

This is not just an Eastern European phenomenon, however. Another variation is the 1990s British movement “Britpop.” According to one expert, the rise of Britpop was the result of increased interest in questions of national and ethnic identity in the 1990s. Media was focused on what it means to be English. Britpop emerged as a reaction to several things: the rise of Grunge in the United States, the quickening pace of European integration and the introduction of the Euro. The same interpretation can be adapted to the Eastern European forms, including to Čeberenčyk.

One major difference, however, is that Britpop did not refer to folk songs, but to British styles popular in the 1940s to 1960s. Though not as extreme as its Eastern European cousins, it nevertheless represents a rejection of modernity. Čeberenčyk’s music, like Ivan Kupala, Disco Polo, Turbofolk and Britpop – is a reaction to the rising popularity of modern Western music styles and the falling interest in traditional forms. It is one way these cultures are dealing with globalization.

Another synthesis of modern and folk music can be seen in the music of the Canadian band Café Kiev. This group also takes traditional Lemko songs and reworks them for modern audiences, but its reworkings are done in a rock style. Drummer Yarko Nazarowicz told The Ukrainian Weekly in 1996 that “we play these [Lemko] songs because the Lemko region is now in Poland, where we grew up. We know these songs, we sang them since childhood.”

In July 1995, they released their first album, with nine songs blending traditional Lemko and Ukrainian songs and modern arrangements. Though the band still plays weddings and other common affairs, they have also had club dates in Toronto and have played festivals in Edmonton and Saskatoon. In 1994 and 1995, they performed at the Lemko Vatra festival in Poland.

Demko Trochanowskij, a leader of Rusyn youth in Poland, plays in a band called Serencza, which performs Lemko folk music, but with a twist – they rework the songs into various popular styles, such as Irish folk style.

The band’s name is a Lemko archaism meaning “luck,” and was formed in the fall of 1997 by Roman Korbicz, Piotr Kwolka and Mirko Trochanowskij. Serencza’s current lineup includes Mirosław Bogoń, Łukasz Dembski, Anna Drejowicz, Jakub Dziubyna, Eugeniusz Korbicz, Iwona Korbicz, Roman Korbicz and Łukasz Rajczak, along with Demko Trochanowskij.

The group has performed at Vatra festivals in Ždynja and Mykhaliv, at the Podlaska Jesien Festival of Ukrainian Culture in Punsk and at other festivals throughout Poland. They have also been featured on TV Polonia, both nationally and regionally.

Closely related to Rusyn folk music is that of the Hutsuls, another small people in the Carpathians which is more closely aligned to the Ukrainian nation. Their musical traditions have not gone unnoticed by modern performers either. One Hutsul-influenced band is Gogol Bordello, fronted by Eugene Hutz, whose background includes Hutsul, Gypsy and Russian blood. The band performs what it calls “punk cabaret” music, influenced by Hutsul, Ukrainian, Romanian and Gypsy music. The band has recorded three CDs, “The Voi-La Intruder” (1999), “Multi Kontra Culti vs. Irony” (2002) and “When the Trickster Starts a-Pokin” (2002). Hutz is well known to New Yorkers from his stints as house DJ at the Bulgarian bar Mehanata, in Chinatown.

Another Hutsul-related performer is L’viv-based Ruslana Lyžyčko, an ethnic Ukrainian, who recently released the first CD ever to go platinum (100,000 copies sold) in Ukraine, called Dyki Tanci. The album does not feature folk music, but does show a strong influence of Hutsul culture. Ruslana was quoted in the press as saying: “The biggest factor in the success of this album, as far as I can see, is the colossal energy of the music, inspired by our great Carpathians.”

Not everyone was impressed, however. In mid-September, shortly after the release of Dyki Tanci, Ruslana got sucked into a controversy extensively covered by the local and national press. The newspaper Vysokyj Zamok ran a letter on 18 September written by Petro Škribljak, director of a branch of the Scientific Research Institute of Ukrainian Studies of the Minsitry of Education and Sciences which deals with the Hutsuls. Škribljak took issue with the use of the word “dyki” (wild), believing that it degrades the Hutsuls by portraying them as primitives. The issue was discussed in the local government as well.

In response, Ruslana expressed respect and admiration for the Hutsul people, and pointed out that other Hutsuls have responded favorably to the album. This was shown when she performed at the International Hutsul Festival in Vyžnzc in late September 2003.

Director of the L'viv Art Gallery Boris Hryhor'evič Voznyckyj is quoted on Ruslana's website as saying:

Art of the 20^th century cannot be the same as the original ancient creations of the Hutsuls. Songs and dances are different today. But this is still the work of Hutsuls! Dyki Tanci is something new which can be regarded as the creativity of the 21^st century Hutsuls….[Ruslana] did not set for herself the goal of recreating Hutsul folklore – indeed Ruslana is a contemporary performer, and therefore the ancient motifs should be reworked. What sort of creativity would there be otherwise?

Voznyckyj's comments stand in the defense of the work of those seeking to update Rusyn folksongs as well!

Ruslana may well venture into Rusyn folk motifs on her next album. She is planning on following up the success of Dyki Tanci with a second volume, Dyki Tanci 2, which will include material not included on the first album, as well as new songs influenced by the musical traditions of Bukovina and Transcarpathia.

Rusyn folk music is superbly rich. More than six thousand folk songs have been identified in the Lemko region alone. One musicologist, Filaret Kolessa, collected 820 songs himself in the early years of the twentieth century. Even if they only ever update Lemko songs, Čeberenčyk and the others clearly have enough material for decades of albums.

These artists and others like them represent the first steps towards creating a distinct Rusyn pop music. As mentioned above, the concept of updating traditional music for modern ears is nothing new. By creating Disco Lemko, Čeberenčyk and others are contributing to a larger movement in world music. It should prove to be a valuable stepping stone towards real, original Rusyn pop music, recorded in Rusyn but completely new.