By James Power
Our car repairs in Odessa were done by early evening and we had a couple of hours of daylight to finally make it to Mykolaiv. We were headed there to meet up with Sergei Pavlyshko, a musical engineer with the dance-music collective DuraSound. It wasn’t until we found him that we learned what our delays had cost us. They had organized a big party on Friday at the apartment of a guy who apparently has an incredible collection of vintage instruments, and Sergei had arranged for us to go to a local band’s recording studio. Obviously we were disappointed, but we ended up having a pretty great night in Mykolaiv regardless. Sergei took us to a friend’s birthday party where we were greeted by Nikita Khudiakov, who made it his personal mission to provide and guide us to as many sounds as he could. He’s the singer and songwriter for a band called BazookaBazooka and managed to give us a makeshift performance of some solo material amid the surrounding drunkenness. Accompanied by just an acoustic guitar, his songs and voice were reminiscent of a young Caetano Veloso. He then wrote us a comprehensive list of Ukrainian music to pick up. We spent the rest of the night singing songs, drinking beer and Crimean wine, and talking until the wee hours. The next day, a tired, slightly hungover Sergei walked us to a music shop to buy what we could from the list, then took us to see the port of the city before saying goodbye and heading to work. What a champ.
Nikita
Nikita Khudiakov – Photoapparat
Nikita Khudiakov – Night
BazookaBazooka – GoGo
Dura (ft. Boroda) – Follow Me
Gobstop – A Russian Prison Song
A short Russian lesson
Kids jumping
