Uvula (band)

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Uvula
Увула
Uvula performing at Stereoleto in St. Petersburg (2018)
Uvula performing at Stereoleto in St. Petersburg (2018)
Background information
OriginSt. Petersburg, Russia
GenresIndie-rock, dreampop, shoegaze, surf rock
Years active2015-2022
LabelsNone, (previously) Домашняя Работа
MembersAleksey Avgustovsky (vocals and guitar), Aleksandr Smirnov (guitar), Denis Shilovsky (drums), Artemy Shilo (bass guitar), Roma Kuzankin (keyboard)
Websitehttps://uvulaworld.com/

Uvula (Russian: Увула, stylized: увула) was a Russian indie-rock band formed in 2015. The band had many members throughout the years. Only the frontman Aleksey Avgustovsky and guitarist Aleksandr Smirnov remained consistent members.

Background

The name увула comes from a cyrillicization of the (Latin-derived) English word uvula.

The band has not stated how the word “увула” is pronounced, and they say they are open to their fans pronouncing it however they like.[1] However, the frontman of the group Aleksey Avgustovsky most often pronounces the name with the emphasis on the second vowel. You can hear an example of the pronunciation here.

History

2015-2016: Creative Beginnings and Никак

Aleksey Avgustovsky said in an interview that he and the group's lead guitarist Aleksandr were living in tents in the south of Russia near Anapa when they decided to form a band in 2015.[2][3] The other members save Aleksandr left the project after a year.

Uvula got their start playing in the bar Inoteka (Rus: Инотека).[4]

On April 4, 2016, the group released the LP Никак, including the songs “Лузер” and “Один.” The record is notable for its shoegaze style. Most prominently the droning melancholic vocals drenched in reverb.

In September 2016, Uvula performed at the Russian indie-music festival Homecultism alongside groups Padla Bear Outfit, Sonic Death, and others. In this performance, the group played songs from Никак and several early versions of songs that would eventually end up on the album я думал у меня получится. A compilation featuring the songs, “pulpy” and “natural behavior,” titled Homecultism Vol. 1 was released in 2016. The songs “pulpy” and “natural behavior” would later be re-worked to become the songs “Мы” and “Интро” respectively.

2016-2019: Я думал у меня получится and rising popularity

Over time, the group gained a small following on the Russian social network VK and Aleksey became more serious about continuing the project.[3] Following the release of я думал у меня получится in 2017 Uvula began to attract more fans and received various opportunities to play at larger venues. Though the group began to make more money through merch sales and concerts, the travel and housing costs began to affect the band. In 2019, Aleksey sold his car in order to produce more merch.[2]

2019-2020: Нам остается лишь ждать, Ничего сверхъестественного, and the COVID-19 pandemic

On April 30, 2019, Uvula held a concert in Moscow at the Aglomerat presenting the album Нам остается лишь ждать supported by the group Автоспорт.[5]

On June 21, 2019, Uvula played a concert at Nike Box in Gorky Park, Moscow.[6] On July 4, 2019, they released the full recording of the concert on YouTube.[7]

In 2020 Uvula joined the label Домашняя Работа.[8]

In March 2020, the music festival БОЛЬ held an online concert entitled "Карантин это боль" in which they collected funds for bands who had shows cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This included the group Uvula. Aleksey said in an interview with Sobaka that the group donated the money from this concert to the Sozidanie Foundation to help doctors in Russia.[9] Also, In March 2020 the group performed on the Russian talk show Вечерний Ургант (English: Evening Urgant) playing their song “Электрический Ток” (English: Electric Current).[10]

In April 2020 Uvula contributed to the compilation album Не выходя из дома for the Институт Музыкальных Инициатив (Institute of Musical Initiatives) with the song Побег. The album highlighted several local musicians who were affected by the pandemic, including Bicycles for Afghanistan, Интурист, and Союз among many others.[11]

In April 2021, ИМИ hosted Aleksey Avgustovsky on a YouTube livestream entitled Как писать хорошие песни без углубленных знаний сонграйтинга (How to write good songs without in-depth songwriting knowledge). In the video, Aleksey shares tips from his experience working with the group Uvula and songwriting in general.[12]

2021-2022: Устойчивая непогода and disbandment

In 2021 the label “Домашняя Работа” collapsed after allegations of violence were raised against Petar Martich (Cyrillic: Петар Мартич), one of the founders of the group Пасош.[13] Aleksey Avgustovsky spoke out about these accusations and announced Uvula would be leaving the label.[14] Aleksey stated on Uvula's telegram channel,[15]

This morning, we gathered as a group to discuss everything that did not allow us to publish the usual notes from the tour. The band decided to leave the label Домашняя Работа, in connection with the accusations received by one of its founders. For us, the label is a community of people united by a common idea. We worked for the sake and for creativity, but, unfortunately, now it has become something completely different, not close to us. We expected that the response would be dictated by the values that the label had previously promoted. We stood for honesty in our manifestations, equality, the LGBT+ community, for a normal social system and a different Russia. We saw something else that annoyed us as musicians and people. Namely, a backlash in the form of accusations. We support Anya Zosimova and worry about her.

On October 1, 2021, the group released their most recent LP to date, Устойчивая непогода. Aleksey said in an interview that this was the first album the group had recorded on a tape recorder, with previous albums being mixed but not recorded in analog.[4]

At some point after the Russian Invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Aleksey moved to Yerevan, Armenia. While in Armenia he performed at several different venues as the solo act lek (see Other Projects).[16] One of such concerts was Camerata Fest Yerevan, a three day charitable music festival featuring the likes of Sonic Death, Источник (Istochnik), and others. Camerata would later organize events with Noize MC, Boris Grebenshchikov, and other prominent names in the Russian and Armenian music scene. According to the Armenian news agency Mediamax, part of the profits from this festival went to aid citizens affected by the 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.[16]

While in Armenia, Aleksey started the charitable "mono tour" business, Weddings and Funerals Tours. The business offered to show people around the various sites Aleksey had discovered in his time in Yerevan.[17] On November 30, 2022, the business ceased operations.[18] According to Aleksey, the proceeds from the business (֏230,000) were distributed to NGOs in Armenia and Ukraine.

In March 2022, Aleksey began an "intimate and friendly" relationship with the filmmaker and activist Dasha Torokhova.[19] On October 25, 2022, Dasha released a post on Instagram accusing Aleksey of violence occurring on the night of March 26, 2022. She accuses Aleksey of grabbing her hand and throwing her to the ground, causing her to hit her head on the floor, after an argument about an Instagram post.[19] In the same post she also accuses him of gaslighting her and fabricating stories about her in an attempt to delegitimize her claims.[19] In November 2022 Aleksey took to Instagram to address these claims in a story post on his personal Instagram account.[20] In the post he states,

Regardless of my opinion about some of the statements from the post, I would like to apologize to the whole community, my behavior is inappropriate and destructive. I do not want to, and will not write anything bad about Dasha, and discuss the post in the public field. If you intend to turn away from me and to vent your irritation—this is justified. I do not consider disclosing this topic anymore to be necessary.

In June 2022 the group released a statement on its VK account stating that it no longer felt comfortable speaking or hosting its music on the site.[21] In the post, the group announced that it would be removing its music from both VK and Yandex Music. The post made clear that the group did not want to use services from companies who “cooperate with the state.” The group also discouraged their followers from using services like VK.

On November 30, 2022, the group ceased operations after being placed on a list of “opinion leaders” by the Russian Federal communications, technology, and mass media agency Roskomnadzor.[22] This effectively put the group on a black list, and according to the group, they were no longer able to perform at large venues within the Russian Federation.[23]

On December 15, 2022, the group released a collection of Aleksey's demos to raise money for “humanitarian aid.”[24]

2023–present: Post-breakup

On October 12, 2023, the group released a set of merchandise ahead of their final EP.[25]

Musical style and influences

Uvula plays a unique style of music which falls within the broad indie-rock category with elements of synthwave, jazz, and post-punk. The art and culture publication Colta described the style as "...atmospheric-romantic dream-pop, drowned in a cozy guitar ringing a la the 80s..." [26] One festival organizer described them as the “Russian version of The Smiths.”[27] Uvula's music is most often described as dreampop or surf rock, and even Midwest emo, though the group rejects classification.[28] Furthermore, the frontman Aleksey stated in an interview that he thinks the group's association with the post-punk scene is “reckless”[1]

The group's earlier works (before 2020) have been described as "...extremely relaxed, as if melting in the predawn fog..."[26]

Commenting on Uvula's most recent album, Устойчивая непогода, Aleksey Avgustovsky notes,[29]

We have become "heavier", as it seems. The guitars have more pronounced timbres, the bass is loaded in many places, we really may have become closer to alternative rock, without wanting to. This is hardly a bad thing, since, as a rule, our genre is invented for us, and the more assumptions, the more interesting what associations we evoke in the listener.

Frontman of Uvula Aleksey Avgustovsky reports having listened to many artists of the “Russian wave” like Mike Naumenko, Boris Grebenshikov, and, Kino (Russian: Кино). According to Aleksey, "many of Kino's tracks continue to influence me..."[2] Along with “Russian wave” musicians, Aleksey also said he listened to, Arctic Monkeys, The Strokes, and Klaxons.

Discography[30][31]

LPs

  • Никак (2016)
  • я думал у меня получится (2017)
  • Нам остается лишь ждать (2019)
  • Снова возращаюсь домой (2020)*
  • Устойчивая непогода (2021)

EPs

  • Ничего сверхъестественного (2020)*

Singles

  • Серф (2017)
  • Ты и твоя тень (2018)
  • Without U (ft. SALUKI) (2017)
  • With U (ft. SALUKI) (2018)
  • дом (ft. cherry candy) (2018)
  • Люблю (ft. 044 ROSE) (2018)
  • новый твой (ft. источник) (2019)
  • Верь мне (2019)
  • Много ошибок (ft. тима ищет свет) (2019)
  • днём с огнём (ft. foresteppe) (2019)
  • Побег (2020)
  • Снова возвращаюсь домой (ft. Пасош) (2020)
  • не видимся (2020)*
  • сёрф (live) (2020)
  • fukc 2020 (2020)
  • Увидел другой (2021)
  • wake me up when 2021 ends (2022)

Featuring Uvula

  • Kindy King & SALUKI — No Way (ft. Увула & Ars Was Taken) (2018)
  • BEJENEC – Вновь и вновь (ft. Увула) (2021)
  • Труд – В отеле “Прибой” (ft. Увула) (2021)

*Released on label Домашняя Работа

Band members

Current Members

  • Aleksandr "Sasha" Smirnov — guitar
  • Denis "Dan" Shilovsky — drums
  • Artemy Shilo — bass
    • Shilo frequently uses the Hohner B2A, a headless bass guitar introduced in the 80s.
  • Roma "Alik" Kuzankin — keyboard

Controversy

One of the group's unreleased songs, unofficially titled, “песня про плохих людей”[32] (transl. a song for bad people), contains the lyrics “мусора — позор России” which roughly translates to “the pigs/trash are the shame of Russia.” A common protest slogan used against police.

In 2022 the frontman of the group Aleksey was accused of violence against a woman named Dasha Torokhova. Dasha shared her story with her followers on Instagram.[19] Aleksey has denied some elements of the story but issued an apology on his private Instagram account.[20]

Breakup

In 2023 every member of the group was placed on a list of “opinion leaders” in Russia by the state censorship agency Roskomnadzor following a crackdown on "foreign agents" in Russia after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine which included many anti-war artists and opposition journalists in Russia.[22] Aleksey has hinted numerous times at a (unofficial) blacklist which forced the group to stop performing at large concert venues.[33][34] Aleksey and other members of the group fled to Yerevan, Armenia where they performed a concert and lived for some time. A post from Aleksey on his personal Instagram suggests he may have left Armenia around September 5, 2022.[35] According to the band's Telegram channel, Aleksey has since moved to Argentina and reportedly has been working with the Argentine indie-rock group Sakatumba.[36]

The group announced that their final album will be released in 2023.[33]

Other projects

circle k

Circle K (stylized: circle k) was a joint video production project between Aleksey Avgustovsky and Alyona Koleso.[8] Together they recorded the video for Uvula's song “ты и твоя тень.” Because they couldn't afford to hire a director. That video now has more than 800,000 views on YouTube.[37]

YouTube catalogue[38]

  • Music video, sexhater – как не бояться (2020)
  • Unofficial music video, тима ищет свет – собака (2020)
  • Music video, увула – fukc 2020

Other works

  • Music video, увула – ты и твоя тень

fleece flower

Fleece Flower (stylized: fleece flower) is a project created by Aleksey Avgustovsky, producing EDM and Dance-inspired music with Aleksey's signature vocals. However, most of these songs have been removed from streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify. Recordings still exist on Bandcamp, YouTube, and SoundCloud.

Releases

LPs
  • что ты видишь (2017)
  • 1999-2000 (2019)
Singles
  • незнакомый друг (2018)
  • изгананник (2019)

lek

Lek (stylized: lek) is a solo project created by Aleksey Avgustovsky.

Releases

LPs
  • 1000 i 1 razbitoe serdtse (2022)[39]

External links

  1. Uvula's YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/@user-tb7cs2ro9l
  2. Uvula's Instagram profile: https://www.instagram.com/uvula1000000/
  3. Uvula's VKontakte Page [ru]: https://vk.com/uvulauvula
  4. Uvula's Telegram channel [ru]: https://t.me/uvulasucks
  5. Uvula's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/uvulauvula
  6. Early performance at Инотека: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ORwOr7LRyE
  7. Performance at Nike Box in Gorky Park: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCl-cDcYLrU

References

  1. ^ a b "Увула — "добрая грусть" от питерской группы". The-Flow.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  2. ^ a b c "«Продаю свою машину, чтобы сделать мерч»: интервью с лидером «Увулы» об инди и бедности". Афиша (in Russian). Retrieved 2023-04-12.
  3. ^ a b ""Увула»: «Хочется иметь шанс удалить "ВКонтакте" и нигде не появляться"". The Village (in Russian). Retrieved 2023-04-16.
  4. ^ a b Ovchinnikov, Nikolay (2021-10-01). "«Устойчивая непогода» «Увулы» — идеальный альбом момента. Как так вышло?". АфишаDaily. Retrieved 2023-06-01.
  5. ^ "Увула. Презентация альбома в Москве в Aglomerat (Moscow), 30 Апр 2019". Last.fm (in Russian). Retrieved 2023-05-23.
  6. ^ "Nike Box MSK : Увула, vika pestrova". pt-br.facebook.com (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2023-05-23.
  7. ^ увула – nike box live (2019), retrieved 2023-05-23
  8. ^ a b "Deep Cuts → Интервью: Увула". deepcuts.ru. Retrieved 2023-04-16.
  9. ^ "Как дрим-поп-группа «Увула» отказалась от легких денег и больших лейблов, за год став явлением андеграундной сцены". Собака.ru (in Russian). 2020-06-22. Retrieved 2023-06-05.
  10. ^ «Увула» — «Электрический ток». Вечерний Ургант. Фрагмент выпуска от 31.03.2020 (in Russian), retrieved 2023-04-16
  11. ^ "♫ Не выходя из дома ♫ • Институт музыкальных инициатив (ИМИ)". Институт музыкальных инициатив (ИМИ) (in Russian). Retrieved 2023-05-23.
  12. ^ Как писать хорошие песни без углубленных знаний сонграйтинга // Алексей Августовский (Увула), retrieved 2023-05-23
  13. ^ "Лейбл «Домашняя работа» закрылся. Через месяц после обвинений его сооснователя в насилии". Афиша (in Russian). Retrieved 2023-04-14.
  14. ^ "Артисты лейбла «Домашняя работа» — о ситуации с Петаром Мартичем ♫ ИМИ.Журнал". Институт музыкальных инициатив (ИМИ) (in Russian). Retrieved 2023-04-14.
  15. ^ "uvulasucks". Telegram. Retrieved 2023-05-24.
  16. ^ a b "Событие: в Ереване пройдет благотворительный музыкальный фестиваль Camerata Fest". Нож (in Russian). 2022-04-14. Retrieved 2023-05-24.
  17. ^ "@circ.lek on Instagram". Instagram. 2023-05-24. Retrieved 2023-05-24.
  18. ^ "@weddingsandfuneralstours on Instagram". Instagram. Retrieved 2023-05-24.
  19. ^ a b c d "Dasha on Instagram: "Tw: физическое насилие. Обнимаю всех кто сталкивается с насилием и всех кто пишет о нем. Берегите себя. Вы можете сделать донат или обратиться за помощью: @nasiliutochkanet @sisters.help @_wcons_ @tebepoveriat"". Instagram. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  20. ^ a b "ответ = @circ.lek". www.instagram.com. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  21. ^ "в первый день лета спустя почти полгода стоит.. | увула | VK". vk.com. Retrieved 2023-04-18.
  22. ^ a b "The All-Seeing State Eye". istories.media. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  23. ^ "привет. спустя семь лет группа увула прекращает.. | увула | VK". vk.com. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  24. ^ "ничего сверхъестественного on Instagram: "lek demos 16-22 pt.1 только в конце 21-го года у меня появились собственные ламповая голова и кабинет, а до этого я писал все в карту. звук этих демок соответствующий. плюс я никогда не пытался сделать их качественными, в этом никогда не было смысла, тк это был макет для будущих собранных вместе с группой треков я буду публиковать сюда все что лежит в папке на компе. могут быть сторонние проекты, неизданные треки и просто фан только на бэндкемпе и саундклауде. будет несколько частей demo recordings. money from sales will go to humanitarian aid"". Instagram. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  25. ^ "Instagram". www.instagram.com. Archived from the original on 2023-10-12. Retrieved 2023-10-12.
  26. ^ a b "Что слушать в апреле | Colta.ru". www.colta.ru. Retrieved 2023-06-01.
  27. ^ "Увула "Ты и твоя тень"". The-Flow.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2023-04-12.
  28. ^ On Air TALK – круглый стол #4 | обсуждаем лайвы: увула, Нонконформистка, источник и др., retrieved 2023-05-23
  29. ^ "«Увула»: «Мы заслужили свое место среди знаковых гитарных групп» | Colta.ru". www.colta.ru. Retrieved 2023-06-01.
  30. ^ "Увула (Uvula)". Genius. Retrieved 2023-04-12.
  31. ^ https://uvula.bandcamp.com/
  32. ^ Увула - Песня про плохих людей @ Ереван 27.05.2022, retrieved 2023-04-13
  33. ^ a b "Instagram".
  34. ^ "VK.com | VK". m.vk.com. Retrieved 2023-06-04.
  35. ^ "@circ.lek on Instagram: "спасибо армении за приют, а моим друзьям за то что они есть"". Instagram. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  36. ^ "uvulasucks". Telegram. Retrieved 2023-05-23.
  37. ^ увула - ты и твоя тень, retrieved 2023-04-16
  38. ^ "circle k - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 2023-05-25.
  39. ^ "1000 i 1 razbitoe serdtse. Премьера сольного альбома Лека — солиста группы «Увула»". The Blueprint (in Russian). Retrieved 2023-04-14.
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