This composition has become a favorite among the viewers and aficionados of BACK TO BASICS project. Some of its fragments are played in the videos, and now the full version of Harna Ya (I Am Beautiful) track is available on iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, Musicload, and Apple Music.
Harna Ya, a Ukrainian folk song, was performed by Maria Kvitka and Anastasia Poletneva, but now it sounds in a new contemporary arrangement.
Maria Kvitka, one of the song performers and a project consultant, tells about the work on the song:
“Most folk songs, though strikingly beautiful, are rather sad. But we wanted to choose an optimistic song for this project, which would help the audience connect to the beauty of Ukrainian women and outfits. This is how Harna Ya song was selected; later it became a project token. We completely changed the melodics: for more than a month, music producer Igor Sakach, vocalist Anastasia Poletneva, instrumentalist Maksym Berezhnyuk and I worked on the song’s new sound.”
About the project
BACK TO BASICS is a cycle of short ambient digital videos dedicated to Ukrainian culture, traditions, and folk customs from their origins until modernity. The first season contained 26 videos demonstrating festive female outfits.
Each video reproduced an ethnic image characteristic of a specific region. Project characters are girls and women of different ages, flamboyant and original. The national costumes were provided from private collections.
In March 2018, work on BACK TO BASICS second season started; it reproduces the traditions of Ukrainian weddings in different regions.
Project team: Ukrainian Institute of Fashion History (consultant), Oleksiy Guz (director), Yuriy Bakun (cameraman), Olena Malkova (producer), Signal Red company (graphics), Igor Sakach (music producer). Singer Rosava is the project’s ideologist.
