Vangola brings back pleasant memories of French label Prikosnovénie, in multiple aspects from Hanna Svirska‘s fairy tale aesthetic to Sana Shahmuradova’s folklorish cover art.  The project is released on Kyiv’s Standard Deviation, who also released last year’s superlative compilation From Ukraine, For Ukraine.  While Svirska was featured on that project (with an ambient version of “Inner”), Yangola is a showcase for her skills.  The EP tells a valuable story, a parable of encouragement to a people in crisis.

One of the most interesting press quotes is that the Ukrainian word yangola “stands for an imagined musical genre.”  The timbre is slippery, as the music has the feel of ambience, the narrative of folk and a vocal delivery that with Seréen touches on opera.  And then there’s that Aho Ssan remix, a left-field surprise that contributes tinges of drone and electronics.  Suffice it to say that the EP flows like…