Shakima Trio’s warm and heartfelt sound, and Shakima’s fragile yet determined chant create illusion of much-needed light.

After Russia invaded Ukraine and started a war, millions of Ukrainians left homeland and found refuge in European countries – also in Latvia, which gave shelter to aproximately 40,000 Ukrainians (mostly women and children).

Ukrainian folklorist, ethnomusician and violinist Shakima Garunts was one of them. She found shelter in Latvia and, thanks to music producer and muisican Ainārs Majors, she continues to do what she wants and is supposed to do – make and perform music.

At the beginning of the summer, Garunts together with the Latvian guitarist and singer Jānis Ruņģis and the bass player Ainārs Majors created the ethnomusic group Shakima Trio. The trio gave concerts, and at the beginning of the winter they released a lucid, gentle and colorful album “Vysoko”.

The year of 2022 started with darkness and it seems it will remain forever like that, but Shakima Trio’s warm and heartfelt sound, and Shakima’s fragile yet determined chant create illusion of much-needed light – a light in which friendship, sincerity and humanity reside.

Stream “Vysoko” LP on Spotify.