“Mountain music that can release the most beautiful echo in the listener.“
— Ssirus W. Pakzad, Jazzthing
A world champion of brass and a fairy of voice - that's how you can describe the program of Matthias Schriefl and Tamara Lukasheva.
Matria combines various types of southern German folk music (e.g. yodeling, alpine songs, Zwiefach) with Ukrainian folk music, a grooving alphorn with the singing of the Ukrainian Carpathians, improvisation and freedom with tradition from both countries.
“Glory and freedom have not yet died for Ukraine, nor will fate smile on us, young Ukrainians. Our enemies will disappear like dew in the sun, and we, brothers, will also be masters in our own land,” is the first verse of the Ukrainian national anthem – and no, it wasn’t written recently, even if it was in is so tragically obvious. The Ukrainian poet Pavlo Chubynskyj wrote the patriotic poem, which later became an anthem, in the fall of 1862, long before Ukraine became an independent state.
The world has not been the same since February 24th. Matria makes music that becomes a refuge that connects people - in a world situation that is only hesitantly arriving in the everyday normality of many people and that goes beyond what was previously imaginable every day.
It started with the voice back when people couldn't yet play instruments. The rest followed suit. In the most difficult times, to ease the soul and awaken the strength to survive, people sang and played. The Duo Matria is a manifesto of life, joy and beauty as an answer for today's times.