Gordiy Starukh (1 March 1988, Lviv) is a Ukrainian singer, musician, multi-instrumentalist and sound producer, master of musical instruments, former member of the bands Joryj Kloc, Jalapita and the electro-folk band Lirwak. Participant of the 11th season of The Voice project. Revives the Ukrainian folk tradition of making and playing the wheeled lyre.
He works solo as a "one man band" - he plays four instruments at the same time: a wheeled lyre, guitar, drums, and synthesiser and sings to this music. He plays in the genre of "folktronics", which combines folk motifs with beats, bass and moves inherent in various genres of electronic music.
Biography.
Gordiy Starukh was born in Lviv. He studied at the 55th school, Lviv Academic Gymnasium and Lviv State College of Decorative and Applied Arts named after Ivan Trush.
2006 - 2008 - member of the band "People of Good".
2008 - 2017 - member and co-creator of the band Joryj Kłoc.
2017 - member of the band Lirwak.
In 2017, he started working solo. The first track was the Lemko song "Komanytsia". In fact, it determined the next direction of Gordiy's work - synths, beats and folk. He performed live only two years later, as it was technically and financially difficult to implement the idea. Since then, he has been posting live streams from the studio and giving online concerts. In particular, he gave an online concert at the invitation of the Polish festival Folkowisko for their community Kultura w kwarantannie.
Gordiy's favourite performers are the folk band Burdon and Lemko Bluegrass band, Marian Pyrih, Artem Bemba, Sashko Bul, lyricist Andriy Lyashuk, Yurko Samovilov, Tik Tu, Wavewalkrs, Dakha Braha. Gordiy is inspired by Alyona Alyona and Jamala from the mainstream.
Hordii Starukh considers his colleague, a professional lyricist Oles Koval, to be one of the drivers of his development in his now favourite business. He recalls that it was in his hands that the very first lyre sounded. Hordii learned and improved on his practice. The master jokes that this improvement took many years, and that making lyres became not only his favourite thing, but also his income.
Creativity
Joryj Kłoc
The band Joryj Kłoc (pronounced [yoriy kloc]) was formed in 2008 and started as an electronic project using Ukrainian old songs and motifs set to electronic DJ rhythms. The current line-up has existed since 2010, and nowadays the "klotsy" themselves claim to play full-fledged rock. To be more precise: "Ukrainian ritual hip-hop dybzhe-ethno-devil". However, Polish Radio defined the band's style as turbo-folk, and during a trip to the Donetsk region, local newsmen already defined them as "Cossack breakbeat". During their performance at the semi-final of the 11th season of Mam Talent, a show on the Polish TV channel TVN, the hosts presented the band as "a Slavic Sepultura from the Roots".
This is how Gordiy Starukh explains the band's name:
"It all started when Hordii Starukh's friend, Oleh Koval, learnt to play the bandura at school. One day he was given the chance to play a wheeled lyre for a while. From then on, he began his lyre-making career. One day he found a book by Volodymyr Kushpet called "Elderliness" at the Publishers' Forum. It was a huge, thick book about the phenomenon of elders, that is, kobzars and lyre players. After reading this interesting study, Oleh learned that the elders had their own secret language, which they could use to talk to each other in case of danger. He started looking for words that have survived to this day. For example, cool, kyryat, etc. At the same time, Oleh Koval told Hordii Starukh that "yoryi klots" means a good man. After we formed the band, we called it "Yoryi Klots", played our first concerts, and I looked in the dictionary myself and found that it said "yoryi klots", not "yoryi klats". So it turned out that we kind of came up with a name that really sounds interesting and has some roots, but at the same time it is original.
Joryj Kłoc has participated in many festivals in Ukraine and abroad.
Lirwak
Members of the Lirwak band. Hordii Starukh is on the far right.
Lirwak (pronounced [lirvák]) is a Ukrainian ethno-electronic band formed in 2017 by Hordii Starukh and Oles Koval. In the early months, they were joined by Andriy Petruk. The band's first release was the song "Shuba Shuma" in June 2017, and in July 2018, the band gave their first concert at the Polish festival Folkowisko. Another landmark experience for the band was their collaboration with the Lviv-based band Kurbasy, with whom they created live music for the grand mapping of the Lviv Opera House as part of the New Year's Eve celebration.
Performance on The Voice of the Country
In 2021, Gordiy Starukh passed the audition stage of the TV singing show The Voice. He was chosen by coach Nadiia Dorofeeva.
"As pretentious as it may sound, Dorofeeva is the bravest of them all. She is a new generation, she was the only one who was not afraid and saw that it was possible to make something out of this fashion. Because it's a show, and when they take someone under their care, they have to reveal them," says Hordii Starukh.
Hordii went to the competition with an arrangement of the Ukrainian recruitment song "Dube". This song was already in both his creative and family repertoire:
"I came with it and everyone liked it. It surprised me. But this year, they have a slogan 'reboot'. So perhaps they liked my personality and song."
Hordii covered the folk song in 2020.
"Back then, I often recorded songs in this format: live with several instruments. I made the recording as a joke, after working on the next lyric. From the fifth take, I recorded it, posted it on Facebook, and people applauded me, were very happy. I liked this song too, that's why I chose it. It seemed to me that it would reveal what I wanted to say the most."
The musician came to the talent show in the previous, 10th season, but did not make it to the blind auditions.
"I was 'cut off' at the very first selection - the casting manager weeded out those who couldn't sing or came in for fun. It seems to me that I was 'cut' not because of my repertoire, but because of my lack of preparation. But I didn't get upset, I ticked the box that I had tried and calmed down."
Making musical instruments
Once, when he was about three years old, Hordii accidentally heard a wheeled lyre live when he and his mother attended a concert by Vasyl Nechepa (a Ukrainian kobzar, lyre player, and folk singer). Later, when he was a student, he saw a video of lyre playing online. After that, Gordiy got the idea to buy an instrument. But when he found out that the price of such a lyre was quite high (hundreds, thousands of dollars). That was the end of it. Having gained experience in working with materials, particularly wood, at college, he decided to try to make a lyre himself. After that, I met Oles, the future lyre player of the band Joryj Kłoc. Then he learned about the functioning of a kobza workshop in Ukraine. Later, in 2009, he made his first lyre. When he started making lyres, Hordii discovered that this way he combined sculpture and music. Because one of the manufacturing techniques is hollowing out an instrument from a single piece, which turned out to be close to the guy. Since then, his musical instruments have numbered in the dozens, and the geography of his customers reaches South Korea. Hordii Starukh's lyres are also sold in Malaysia, Canada, Great Britain, Spain, Germany, Italy, Poland, Lithuania, and Turkey.
Hordii works in the workshop of his grandfather, the famous sculptor Emmanuel Mysko. He makes keys and soundboards by hand. He attaches his signature handle to them - it is spiral, not S-shaped, as is usually the case with European instruments. Each of his lyres is unique, so it sounds different. Hordii sharpens the wheels for his future lyres on an Austrian lathe made before the First World War.
Among those who buy such musical instruments, there is a large percentage of collectors. According to Hordii, they are attracted to the lyre's very surroundings. "And there are people who want to create music on it, mostly religious repertoire - psalms and cantos.
As for the material for lyres, everything is very interesting. Sometimes it is old pianos, grand pianos or even shelves. Sometimes the craftsman finds suitable wood in the park.
Family.
Father of three children. His daughter is Rosava. Sons - Vakula and Aeneas.
Wife - Dariia Alyoshkina - a famous Lviv master of vytynanky and sculptor.
His grandfather, the famous sculptor Emmanuel Mysko, was the co-author of the monument to Ivan Franko in front of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, the bust of Danylo Halytskyi at the Lviv airport and in the city council, and the author of a number of memorial plaques in Lviv.
So Hordii belongs to a dynasty of sculptors, and a singing dynasty at that.
