Ethno Trio Troitsa

Troitsa bietet Folk'n'Rock mit Ursprüngen aus Weißrussland. Schon seit den Achtzigern sammelt der Musrkethnologe lvan Kirchuk heimisches Liedgut, welches von Generation zu Generation überliefert wurde und nun das Futter für Troitsa bildet, jenem ,Ethno Trio', das in dieser Form seit '1999 existiert. Mit (passend zum Thema und dem selbst auferlegten Anspruch) traditionellen Instrumenlen wie Gusli, Ocarina, Domra, Zhaleika und Flöten dargebotener, aber durch Gitarren, afrikanische Percussion und Kalimba ein wenig in Richtung Worldmusic getriebener Klangkunst katapultieren Troitsa ihre gesammelten traditionellen Lieder mit aller Macht ins Hier und Jetzt, ohne das Material du'ch allzu viele Modernismen zu verwässern. "Zimachka", der ,Winter', lässt durch helle akustische Gitarren und fröhliche Flötentöne ein wenig den nahenden Frühling durchschimmern, obwohl lvan Kirchuk bärbeißig dröhnt wie Väterchen Frost. "Kozka", die ,Ziege', ist Ethno-Trance ä la OIe Lukkoye und das epische "Sonce Kocicca" ein bombastisches, würdiges Finale mit Dead-Can Dance-Anklängen und jeder Menge Pathos.

Top-Track: Kozka - Rock-magazin "Eclipsed"

Not many releases come this way from Belarus, the land-locked and still politically unrelaxed country surrounded by the Baltic states, Poland, Ukraine and Russia, but several of those have been earlier releases from Minsk trio Troitsa, and they chart the progress to this sixth album.

Ivan Kirchuk is the possessor of one of those real, rumbling bass voices that seem to flourish in Russia and its near neighbours, and conjures mental images of a huge bearded Cossack in boots and floor-length furs.

He formed the original trio in 1996 to perform the traditional material he'd been finding since the 1980s in the villages of Belarus. After its first album the group broke up, but after a pause Kirchuk recruited Yuri Dmitriev and Yuri Pavlovsky, who supplement his armoury of 12-string guitar, domra, gusli, Jew's-harp, whistles, zhaleika and more with guitar, bass, domra, kalimba and percussion.

His singing tends to stay down in the gravelly basement, accessing tones that an epic film-trailer voice-over artist would kill for, but on occasion he rises through the frequencies, right up to a rather finely-controlled falsetto-alto.

Zimachka (Winter), recorded in Poland, is a remarkable and rather impressive thing of wild rhythmic pulses and gutsy instrumental textures, massive enough to match the Eisenstein-sized drama of Kirchuk's declamatory, welkin-ringing rendering of traditional songs brought a long way from the village but nevertheless still sounding like nothing in western Europe.

All the text on the package is in Cyrillic, but their web site www.troitsa.net has information in English.
Andrew Cronshaw - fROOTS magazine (aug/sept 2011, # 328/329, p. 79) on CD Zimachka

Troitsa

Zimachka (VIGMA 3666-1, 2011)

Belarusian trio Troitsa released their vibrant sixth album “Zimachka” (“Winter”) this year. Troitsa combines the rich folk music traditions of Belarus (an eastern European nation located between Poland and Russia) with contemporary elements.

“We work with an ethno-fusion style,” says group leader Yuri Pavlovski. “Our aim is to connect old Belorussian music to modern sounding acoustic music tools. Our collective has existed for more than 12 years.”

Troitsa uses a wide variety of traditional Belarusian musical instruments such as domra (three-stringed mandolin), smyk, gusli (zither), pipes, whistles, mound harmonica, reed stick, zhaleykas (single-reed hornpipe), lyre, ocarinas, and wargan (jawharp); joined by global percussion and persuasive guitars.

The band’s line-up includes Ivan Kirchuk on lead vocals, 12-str. guitar, 3 & 4-str. domras, smyk, gusli, pipes, whistles, mound harmonica, reed stick, zhaleykas, lyre, ocarinas, wargan (jawharp), pipe, rainmaker, duda, kalimba; Yury Dzmitrieu on 6 & 12-string guitars, 4-string domra, smyk, zither, and vocals; and Yury Paulouski on drums, gong, darabuka, gundang, anklung, bells, zvany (horsebells), wood stick, cowbell, kalimba, djembe, and bamboofon.

On Zimachka you will find dazzling acoustic interplay by the Belarusian masters of ‘ethno fusion’ music. - World Music Central.org