Recommendations from the Kyiv Independent: Go_A (Patreon)

Dear Kyiv Independent members, 

This is Chris York, one of the Kyiv Independent’s news editors, here to recommend to you the Ukrainian band called “Go_A.” 

I've been listening to Go_A for nearly three years now, and I still have no idea how to describe them. 

Officially at least, they're "folktronica," which according to one source in an article titled "10 music genres you didn’t know existed," is "a hybrid music genre (which) simultaneously blends acoustic instruments found in folk music and some types of indie rock with the drum machines and synthesizers of electronic music."

Personally, I feel this does Go_A a disservice. It gives no indication of Kateryna Pavlenko's soaring and (and I mean this in the most positive way possible) warbling vocals.

It doesn't describe the harmonies on every track, reminiscent of the Beach Boys at their best, but infused with unmistakably Ukrainian folk tonalities that even if you'd never heard them before, you would recognize as such.

It doesn't describe the fact that somehow, it makes what looks and sounds very much like the humble recorder – it's actually a sopilka, Ukrainian woodwind folk instrument – sound necessary and cool.

And it doesn't describe the absolute joy of dancing like a maniac in a field in Kyiv, watching them live, and letting guitar riffs and electric beats that wouldn't be amiss on a Prodigy record wash over you.

And it could never even begin to describe my personal relationship to their music.

I first saw them play, having never heard them before, at an indoor gig in Kyiv in the autumn of 2021.

I'd only been in Ukraine for a few months, and I joined a few new friends who were already aware of Go_A, as they represented Ukraine at Eurovision earlier that year.

We had a great night, a good chat, and a few drinks as we got joyously acquainted with all the aspects of Go_A’s music I mentioned above, in a pre-curfew, nighttime Kyiv, full of people not under the restrictions of martial law.

One song stood out in particular – 62 seconds of gentle, exquisite melody, perfect harmonies, and luscious synths followed by two seconds of near silence before erupting into one of the most epic choruses I've ever seen live.

None of my more knowledgeable friends knew which song it was, saying it wasn't one they'd released yet. It didn't even have a name.

I'd recorded a 20-second video snippet and for the next 18 months, I'd find myself listening back to it and checking Apple Music to see if they'd finally got around to releasing it so I could hear the entire song once again.

Then finally, in June 2023, it dropped. Turns out it was called Rusalochki (Little Mermaids).

Go_A infused their own meaning into the song, inspired by a group of elderly women forced to leave their homes because of the war, and rebuild their lives with the help of Ukrainian folklore traditions. 

I went to my balcony to listen to it. Kyiv was then experiencing the rare but not unheard-of phenomenon of being simultaneously subjected to a massive electrical storm, and the threat of a Russian missile attack.

The combination of thunder, lighting, and air raid alarms would have been enough on its own, but I threw Rusalochki into the mix for good measure.

And then I had a little cry. Because hearing that song and being taken back to that pre-war gig one night in Kyiv was the first time I'd actually stopped concentrating on what was happening in Ukraine right now, and what might happen, and remembered what it was like before.

Flashbacks of holidays in Odesa, Christmas in Lviv, and six months where I was fortunate enough to see the direction Ukraine, fuelled by young, ambitious and incredibly determined people, was heading before Russia decided this was too much of a threat and needed to be stamped out.

On the morning of the invasion, I'd stood on that same balcony watching those same people running to their cars with their children, pets, and their suitcases, their aspirations in tatters.

So yeah, it was a bit emotional.

But don't let this put you off checking out Go_A – my experience is an incredibly niche one, and they sound brilliant even without an electrical storm and air raid sirens.

Find Go_A on Instagram here and their official website here.