Ukrainian composer and producer Katarina Gryvul has released the second music video of her career — ‘Vdykh Vydykh’, a track from her album ‘SPOMYN’. The video was directed by Illya Dutsyk and stars his grandmother, who had lost her husband just weeks before filming. The director proposed to Gryvul that they tell her story — to process grief and sorrow together. Katarina had recently lost her father as well, making the story behind ‘Vdykh Vydykh’ a deeply emotional reflection from both sides
According to Gryvul, she invited Dutsyk to listen to ‘SPOMYN’ and choose whichever track he felt drawn to for the video. He chose ‘Vdykh Vydykh’. The composer says she also saw it as ‘the strongest candidate’, as she had ‘consciously built’ the track’s structure during the album’s production to make it the most memorable.
Dutsyk and Gryvul first discussed a potential collaboration back in 2022, but the work on ‘SPOMYN’ ‘was delayed’, and they returned to the idea in 2024.
‘We got on a call and I shared my idea — I really wanted to capture the lives of the older generation in nursing homes, as this topic is deeply important and painful for me, and I wanted to draw attention to it. We agreed on a plan of action, knowing that everything would largely depend on the people and the situation. It was important to me that the video have more of a journalistic feel — no staging, just real people and their emotions’, — Gryvul told DTF Magazine.
Dutsyk liked the idea, and for three months he tried to get permission to film in a Ukrainian geriatric care home — but without success.
Before the release of ‘SPOMYN’, Illya suggested filming his grandmother, and Gryvul agreed — she didn’t want to involve professional actors, as she ‘wanted to tell a true story’.
‘This story, as it turned out, deeply resonates with both me and Illya — even the fact that he chose to include scenes of clay sculpting without knowing it’s my second-greatest passion after music, along with many other unexpected coincidences’, the composer shares.
Dutsyk notes that ‘Vdykh Vydykh’ became a deeply personal story for him: ‘My grandfather was like a father to me — he was the one who gave me my core values and principles’.
‘This work is a moment of living through grief and painful loss. It’s raw, filled with loneliness, a turning back to the past, and love for my grandmother’s eyes. I’m glad we did it — it’s an important reflection for our whole family, and I’m truly grateful to Katarina for the creative match and her complete trust’, Illya says.
‘SPOMYN’ is Gryvul’s third full-length album, featuring eight compositions written between 2023 and 2024. The record was released on the Berlin-based label Subtext.
About Katarina Gryvul
Katarina Gryvul is a Ukrainian musician, composer, and producer who merges academic music with experimental electronics. Her debut full-length album was released in 2020. ‘Inside the Creatures’ features unpredictable compositional twists, intense electronic effects, and synthesized vocals with lyrics in English.
Her second full-length album, ‘Tysha’, was released in 2022 on the Ukrainian multidisciplinary label Standard Deviation and was later included in DTF Magazine’s list of the ‘30 Landmark Ukrainian Electronic Albums of the Decade’.
The album reflects the artist’s response to an acute need for human connection during the inevitable isolation of the pandemic. While not without its synthesized rigidity, the melodic flow of harmonies and multilayered, delicate vocals lend the record a sense of softness. The live presentation of ‘Tysha’ took place at a club on Kyrylivska Street in Kyiv, just days before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
