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СОЮЗ (SOYUZ) is a creative collective originally from Minsk, Belarus, now based in Warsaw, Poland. The band consists of composer, arranger and singer Alex Chumak and one of the key figures of the Belarusian underground scene Mikita Arlou, both musicians are multi-instrumentalists and are producing their releases themselves. In Warsaw, they were recently joined by Polish drummer and producer Albert Karch. The name of the band is translated as “union”, which reflects the creative nature of the relationship between its members.
SOYUZ’s previous albums explored and reimagined the legacy of jazz-oriented, mostly non-English-language pop music of the 20th century with a crave for musical freedom. For their third album, released by the UK-based label Mr Bongo, there is a stronger focus influenced by Música popular Brasileira, building bridges from it to present-day Belarus. Alex notes that from the moment he first encountered Brazilian music, he found in it a kind of concentrated emotion that felt as if it were familiar to him from his childhood. This non-verbal emotion and connection between the listener and musician echoes in the music, regardless of understanding of the language the album is recorded in.