Tryvoha is an Ukrainian word for ‘air-raid alarm’ and ‘anxiety’. For centuries the bell towers such as the one at the St. Nikolai Memorial have been used to signal danger or look for signs of smoke or fire across the city. In the 19th–20th centuries, mechanical sirens and loudspeakers replaced the human voice or the bells. Kadan’s soundscape merges the voices of an opera singer with violin vibrations, and an acoustic warning of an imminent airstrike. Such daily alarms are today’s reality in Ukraine, Lebanon, Iran, Gaza, Sudan and so many other places. However, even an air raid siren as an alert system is not accessible to everyone. Protection and timely warning depend on an available infrastructure and a possible safe place to hide. 

The singing also echoes the voices of imaginary and mythological sirens that lured the travelers into their doom. The tragedy of the war intersects with the fear and the psychological and physical oppression of its everyday reality. Out of the constant state of emergency emerges a cry for the fundamental right to live in safety. 

Nikita Kadan, born in 1982 in Kyiv where he lives. 

Duration: 5.52min

Composers: Roman Grygoriv, Illia Razumeiko
Musicians: Lena Bielkina (mezzo-soprano), Ihor Zavhorodnii (violin)
Sound engineer: Anton Vertipolokh
Produced with support of Asortymentna Kimnata Gallery(Ivano-Frankivsk), Galerie Transit (Mechelen), Albertinum (Galerie NeueMeister) - Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.

Presented with the support of the Ukrainian Institute in Germany.