Onuka

Initiator and person of the project Natalia Zhizhchenko previously participated in the groups Tomato Jaws and KOOQLA . In the ONUKA group, she is a vocalist, and the author of music and texts, and the main ideologist. On stage, she, in addition to vocals, plays on a nozzle (flute), ocarina , omnichord , small percussion instruments, and also controls the playback of samples.

In addition to Nata, the project involves two more girls who play drums and keyboards - drummer Maria Sorokina and keyboardist Daria Sert, who also acts as a backing vocalist. In an expanded composition, two trombones , a horn and a bandura (Evgeny Yovenko) joined the team. One of the trombonists also plays trembit . In total, an expanded group of 11 musicians.

By its name, the ONUKA project refers to the fact that the soloist of the group is the granddaughter of Alexander Nikitich Shlyonchik , a famous master of folk musical instruments ^[3] .

The band’s first single, the song “Look,” was introduced in October 2013. At the end of December 2013, a video was released for this composition, directed by the leader of The Maneken Evgeny Filatov. The group's stage debut took place on June 13, 2014, when a half-hour project program was presented at the concert of The Maneken in Kiev club Sentrum.

2014

In May 2014, the mini-album “LOOK” was released ^[4]

ONUKA 's debut album ^[2] , released in 2014 and is freely available on the web ^{[5] [6]} , took first place in the iTunes online store ^{[7] [8] [9]} , ahead of the group Ocean Elzy ^[10] . The debut album contains 10 tracks, among which are 4 songs already familiar to listeners from the mini-album “Look - When I Met You”, “Misto”, “Time” and “Look”. The album is filled with traditional Ukrainian sound motifs performed on jigsaws, banduras and trembits. All this is combined with an electronic arrangement, created by Evgeny Filatov ( The Maneken ) ^[11] - the sound producer of the group. He also participated in work on Jamala's latest album. The previous Onuka mini album took first place in the iTunes online store. On October 17, 2014, the singer presented her album at a recital at the Kiev club Sentrum ^{[12] [13]} .

Immediately after that, the Ukrainian-language single Zavtra was released on Most Addictive Records , an American label specializing in Pop / Indie Dance / Garage.

In December 2014, the group was awarded the winner in two categories of the Cultprostir rating: as the best debut of the year and the best debut album ^[14] .

After the success of the debut album “ONUKA”, the soloist of the group Nata Zhizhchenko said that while searching for information about similar groups or other similar names, she found only the name of the station in the Japanese prefecture of Fukushima , next to the accidental Fukushima nuclear power plant . Nata suggests that it was precisely because of the name of the group that Japan became the second country after Ukraine in terms of the number of sales of its debut album ^[15] .

EP VIDLIK (2016)

In early 2016, the mini-album “VIDLIK” was released, the theme of which is related to the Chernobyl disaster and its influence. The mini-album was the first release of a new label of the same name, founded in January 2016. The authors of the music were Nata Zhizhchenko and Evgeny Filatov. The texts were written by Nata Zhizhchenko, and in the composition “Svitanok” a fragment of a poem by Kiev street art by Jerzy Konopie ^{[16] was used} . In composition “19 86”, recordings of negotiations of fire department dispatchers on the day of the accident were used. The mini-album consists of five compositions in Ukrainian and English ^{[17] [16]} .

The topic of Chernobyl has been of interest to Nat since childhood. Her father was one of the liquidators of the consequences of the accident at the nuclear power plant. Nata's thesis at the institute was devoted to the impact of the Chernobyl disaster on the culture of Polesye . In a blog entry, Nata noted that regular trips to the Exclusion Zone feed her inspiration ^[16] .

The presentation of the album took place on April 9, 2016 at the Kiev club Sentrum ^[18] . In the same 2016, the composition “Other” was performed on the Constitution Day of Ukraine together with the National Orchestra of Folk Instruments ^[19] .

MOZAЇKA (2018)

The new album continues and develops the ideas of two previous releases of the project. According to Nata Zhizhchenko, MOZAЇKA is a story about a series of amazing coincidences, coincidences and symbols ^[20] .

As planned, MOZAЇKA is a one-piece canvas assembled from hundreds of small parts and fragments. Throughout the album there are two main keynotes. The first is Nata's personal story. Her experiences, feelings, memories. Dedications to a loved one and grandmother; faithful friends and childhood musical idols.

The second keynote is Nata's reaction to surrounding events and phenomena. The epochal erection of the arch above the fourth reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The event of the century, described in the documentary sketch of Mainland. And here, the GUNS DON'T SHOOT anti-war manifesto: shoots not weapons, shoots people ^[21] .

Each song of the album is a complete, conceptually completed message. MOZAЇKA is not just an album. This is an interactive project in which music, video, photos, messages form a single whole.

In September 2018, a clip for the STRUM track from the MOZAЇKA album was created, created in collaboration with Alan Badoev . The clip was shot at a landfill in Podgortsy near Kiev; it addresses the issue of environmental pollution with household waste. The presentation of the video took place at the garbage sorting station, and the funds from Youtube-monetization are planned to be transferred to the public organization “Ukraine without smithty” ^{[22] [23]} .

The album was named the best Ukrainian album of the year by the APrize 2019 award ^[24] .

Official

• Official site

Media

• ONUKA - Guten Morgen (inaccessible link) - 12/26/2013 - Part 1 / Channel M1
• ONUKA - Guten Morgen (inaccessible link) - 12/26/2013 - Partin 2 / Channel M1
• ONUKA entered the USA label and took the first place in iTunes // inspired - Sergiy Pishkovtsiy / June 22, 2014.
• Musical edition: Ukrainian debut album Onuka // Ukrainska Pravda - Zhovt 17, 2014 / Sergiy Kane, comma.com.ua, special for UP. Life
• New LP of Ukrainian spivachki appearing at official Soundcloud. // radio24.ua
• Onuka: “Use life to get the most out of your life, but only one traffic jam” // comma.com.ua - Sergiy Kane / 16 july 2014
• ONUKA nterv'yu: "I’m ruining those, I’m vidchuvayu" // soulplay - (04/05/2014)
• ONUKA: “Young people to celebrate the Ukrainian market of music” // inspired - Sergiy Pishkovtsy / 12, 2014.

Others

• ONUKA rozpovіst about the album in STEREOBAZA // stereobaza.com
• Bolshoi Fisun - season 2 - episode 7 // aristocrats.fm - Audio recording to the audio radio / June 13, 2014.
• The maneken. Presentation to ONUKA project // www.concert.ua
• ONUKA at Lviv: yak ce bulo. Photo call from the first Lviv concert // la-verte.org
• Nata Zhizhchenko, leader of the ONUKA group, in Gromadsk. Art // Gromadske Telebachen - 10th Breast 2014
• Midlina S. 5 favorite things: Nata Zhizhchenko (neopr.) . bestin.ua (13.5.2014).
• Nata Zhizhchenko: interview about Onuka and Minsk . sputnik.by (12/06/2015).