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Stalagmite Under a Naked Sky

by Vapniaky (Stalagmite Under a Naked Sky)

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Ukraine, Ukraine, my strange atomic land. Ukraine, Ukraine, my strange atomic land. Flee, flee, flee, flee. Ukraine, my strange atomic land. Human, again, again, again. Nuclear blood flows in your veins. I, your nuclear brain, bloodied. I, your nuclear end.

about

Stalagmite Under a Naked Sky, a.k.a. Vapniak Pid Holym Nebom (Вапняк під Голим Небом), a.k.a. Vapniaky (The Vapniaks), were a group of mostly Ukrainian-Canadians and Ukrainian ex-pats living in Toronto (with Portuguese-Canadian Manny DaSilva on drums) who formed in 1986 to play a concert at The Music Gallery marking the death of political prisoner and poet Vasyl’ Stus. “Vapniak” is Ukrainian for limestone, thus Vapniaky translates directly as “The Limestones,” but it carries a connotation of something old and grovelly, i.e., “fogies.” They’ve been described as “grovel rock” and as “Slavic-roots, avant-garage, psychedelic folk-thrash.”

Formed by Adrian Ivakhiv (keyboards, vocals, guitar, synths, songwriting), Nestor Gula (bass, guitar, vocals, songwriting), Taras Gula (violin, vocals), Zenon Waschuk (guitar, bass, vocals), Andrij Vynnyckyj (vocals, songwriting), Tania Chorna (vocals), and Manny DaSilva (drums), the band invited Czech sax player and co-founder of the Plastic People of the Universe Vratyslav Brabenec to play with them at the Stus Memorial, which he did on a number of occasions subsequently as well. Over the next several years, the band played original songs, thrashy versions of Ukrainian and Lemko folk songs, Plastic People and Velvet Underground covers, and instrumental jams at benefit concerts in the Toronto area and toured several cities with the Avant Garde Ukrainian Theatre (of which most Vapniaks were members). They were joined at times by other musicians including Halyna Cechowska (vocals, guitar), Jarko “Spider” Nazarewicz (drums), and Andrij Polansky (drums, guitar), and joined members of the popular Ukrainian band Braty Hadiukiny (The Brothers Hadiukins) on stage while touring in Ukraine.

Stalagmite Under a Naked Sky was a studio recording made in one night in June, 1991, at The Demo Factory in Toronto. Side 1 featured nine original songs from their repertoire plus a cover of Polish-Ukrainian band Oseledec’s Chernobyl-themed Atomnyj Kraj (“Atomic Land”), which the band slowed down and “industrialized” beneath Tania Chorna’s searing vocals. The other songs range in style from thrashy rockers and punk anthems (“Nanny Goatin’”, “Night Day Time Love”) to David-Byrne-meets-ska ("Elephanshine") and track-bloodied, Dylanesque, post-partum laments (“The Plague”). (Two of the songs, "The Plague" and "Nanny Goatin'", made it into the radio hit parade in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv.)

In addition to this 44-minute song collection, the album (issued on cassette) featured a full-length “B side,” a “companion album” of instrumentals, basement outtakes, and psychedelic forays that appears here separately as “Against the Sky” (Proty Neba).

The original 85-minute or so cassette release (different from what's here) can be heard here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KY2JiD9A54

credits

released July 1, 1991

Studio engineer: Sean Munavish and Michale Mcv.
1991 cassette edition cover design: Adrian Ivakhiv; cassette liner art: Cathy Smith; cassette production by RADIOmanitnist.’
Thanks to Melanie Kaye, Ksenya Maryniak, Lida Kudla, Reaction Studios, and Zen Records.

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about

Adrian Ivakhiv / vax Burlington, Vermont

Adrian Ivakhiv (eev-ahkh-eev) has worked in multiple genres including electroacoustic, chamber, choral, avant-rock, free improv, ambient, and experimental composition. He has made electronic music under the alias "vax" (pronounced "vah(kh)") since the 1980s, and conducted the St. Nicholas Choir in Toronto from 1987 to 2000. He lives in Burlington, Vermont. More info at blog (first link below). ... more

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