The French label Shouka has released an album by Ukrainian producer and musician The Lazy Jezus called UA TRIBAL VOL.1. In the release, which consists of seven tracks, he explores Ukrainian ethnic music and presents it in combination with electronic music.
‘This release is a blend of polyrhythmic percussion and Ukrainian folklore elements, resulting in hypnotic tracks that immerse the listener in a trance-like state, as if transporting them to an ancient ritual of a mysterious tribe’, the description of UA TRIBAL VOL.1 reads.
The Lazy Jesus first presented the UA TRIBAL program at the GRV GRV community party in November 2022. In December 2022, in an interview for DTF Magazine, the musician said that the goal of the project is ‘to broadcast our ethno-cultural code all over the world, so that we are known not only because of music from Eurovision’.
‘Ua Tribal is not exactly electronic music because it doesn’t have a lot of really electronic elements. I didn’t use synths in any track, I mostly used folk samples: sopilkas, vocal cuts, percussion. I wanted to make a trance program — not in terms of style, but in terms of mood: I wanted people to be able to immerse themselves in a certain state, to find some answers — it’s a kind of meditative theme’, The Lazy Jesus described the music.
According to the musician, working on the release, he wanted to find ‘ritual and trance music’, but could only find fun and light folk songs, particularly wedding songs. That’s why he used short samples from different videos, 3-4 seconds each, which he further cut into parts.
‘The advantage of the style I work in is that I can take a short sample and make it the basis of a track. That’s why I have a lot of works created this way: in an interview someone sang two words — I cut them out and combined them. Then my friends started to send me such music — someone organized an event, for example in Zakarpattia, recorded the musicians and sent it to me’.
Following the presentation at the GRV GRV event, The Lazy Jezus played the album live at shows in Berlin, Prague, Paris, Lyon, Brussels, Krakow, Lublin, Bratislava and Barcelona, as well as presented the release on Rinse FM and Kiosk Radio.
The Lazy Jesus (real name — Ehor Havrylenko) is a Kyiv-based musician and sound producer. Among Ehor’s musical projects are soul-pop projects Gurt [O], Hapochka, Dao Park, Ingret, Gouache, jazz projects New Brain Trio, DOGMA trio, The Cancel Band and ethno band Shanti People.
The Lazy Jesus’ debut album, titled Original Fighter, was released in 2020. It combines hip-hop with a jazz sound, and features rappers such as OTOY, Dovhyi Pes and Den Da Funk.
In 2021, Ehor presented a solo EP My Ugly And Beautiful Void Where I Live Without You, as well as a joint EP with rapper OTOY called SLYNA.
