Ukrainian sound artist Katro Zauber has released the track Path. She dedicated it to her close friend actor Pavlo Lee, who died in March 2022 while volunteering in Irpin — the release date coincides with Pavlo’s birthday. The track was released on the Odesa-based label система | system and is available on all digital platforms. Katro Zauber presents the track on DTF Magazine, and we tell about the release in more detail
Path begins with the sounds of sirens that Katro Zauber recorded during a visit to Kyiv in September 2022. The track also features the sounds of tape that Ukrainians used to put on their windows after the start of russia’s full-scale invasion.
The artist wrote the lyrics for Path in May 2022 and recorded them in Amsterdam, where she currently lives and works. The studio used by Katro Zauber is owned by Kourosh, an Iranian-born musician whose family moved to the Netherlands to escape the civil war in the 1980s.
‘Kourosh was born already in Amsterdam, in a refugee camp. When he told me his story, I couldn’t hold back my tears because I remembered the stories of my people and I felt very hurt. It was a moment when you can really feel that a person not from Ukraine understands your state’, the musician recalls.
She recorded the vocals for Path in the fall of 2022, the day before another intense rocket attack on Ukraine.
‘I remember that I was in a very difficult emotional state, I was sick at heart, as if I had a premonition of trouble. So I came to the studio, took out the lyrics and started singing to the music track I had just started to create. Singing is therapy and healing for me, it’s how I live through my difficult states. This is how Path came about thanks to improvisation and painful feelings’, Katro Zauber says.
Path and three other future releases written after February 24, 2022, will form a series that the artist dedicates to Pavlo Lee.
Katro Zauber is a Ukrainian sound artist and DJ who collaborates with global fashion brands, art exhibitions and cultural events. She is a graduate of Module Exchange electronic music school and a participant of PUMA Mirage Camp project, which DTF Magazine did together with PUMA.
After the start of the full-scale invasion of russia, she moved to Amsterdam where she works at Kourosh record studio, performs, records music and is developing in performance art. She also hosts the podcast ‘Volohi rozmovy’.
In our podcast ‘Cities and People’ we talked to Ivan Samokrutkin, founder of the Odesa-based art platform and label система | system, about the electronic scene in Odesa. Also the guest of the episode was Yaroslav Yate, co-owner of DSK PORT and the promo group Feeleed, as well as a member of the duo Yate.
You can listen to the podcast here.
