Vedan Kolod: The Tale Of Igor's Campaign

Their ninth studio album, released after more than 15 years as a band. VE DAN KOLOD once again invite us on a journey through Russia and retell “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” in their own unique way. In “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” Vedan Kolod take us by the hand and transport us to a world full of unfamiliar sounds, nearly forgotten medieval traditions, thrilling heroic deeds, and almost meditative moods. The Tale of Igor’s Campaign is an anonymous epic poem written in Old East Slavic. It recounts the failed medieval raid led by Igor Svyatoslavich against the Polovtsian princes. The Song of Igor is often compared to other epic poems, including *The Song of Roland* and *The Nibelungenlied*. With 218 stanzas, it is not very long. Vedan Kolod has set the Song of Igor to music in a sensitive manner. Originally, the text was sung by the storyteller, as is the case with the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala. “Our goal was to sing the Russian text as closely as possible to the original,” says ensemble member Daryana Antipova. Her colleague Tatyana Naryshkin, who studied folk music, approached the original with great care in her musical adaptation. Vedan Kolod is a folk ensemble from Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, founded in 2005 and consisting of Tatyana Naryshkina, Daryana Antipova, and Valery Naryshkin. All three come from the same family and began making music with their grandparents at an early age. Vedan Kolod’s repertoire includes traditional songs from Siberia and western Russia, as they have made it their mission to revive music from pre-Christian times and the Middle Ages and make it accessible to today’s audience. Their first album, *Tribes*, explored the shamanic musical traditions of Siberia.