Okean Elzy

Biography and creative work

Okean Elzy (О.Е) – Ukrainian rock band with huge history

Year of creation: 1994 

Genres: alternative rock, pop rock, indie rock, art rock, folk-rock

Participants: 5

Albums: 9

Country: Ukraine

Okean Elzy – way to success

Officially, Okean Elzy was formed in October 1994, and a whole generation of Ukrainians has grown up since then. And it all started with Svyatoslav Vakarchuk's collaboration with the band "Klan Tyshi", where all the future musicians of the golden line-up of "Okean" played: bassist Yuriy Khustochka, lead guitarist Pavlo Hudimov and drummer Denys Hlinin. Svyatoslav Vakarchuk met them in the spring and in the summer came to the rehearsals of the band, which was formed by vocalist Andriy Golyak. Due to a misunderstanding with Golyak, all the members of the "Klan Tyshi" decided to leave the band and work with Svyatoslav Vakarchuk. The name "Okean Elzy" (Ocean of Elsa) was inspired by Vakarchuk's admiration for Jacques Yves Cousteau, whose cat was named Elsa.

The first performance of Okean Elzy took place on 12 January 1995 near the Lviv Opera House, in front of a crowd of seven thousand enthusiastic spectators. At that time, they recorded their first demo cassette on their own, which included only 4 songs. The same year was marked by the musicians' first unofficial video and performance at the Chervona Ruta festival in Lviv. The following year, the band released the maxi-single "Будинок зі скла". The guys give concerts in Ukraine, Poland, Germany, France, play at the “Таврійські ігри” (Tavrian Games) festival and perform in Kyiv on the same stage as the world-famous band “Deep Purple”.

In 1997, the band gave their first big concert in Lviv. Shortly afterwards, the musicians met producer Vitaliy Klymov and he convinced them to go to Kyiv. It happened in April 1998. After that, the band released their first solo album, “Там де нас нема”, and a video for the disc's title song. And the whole of Ukraine became aware of the musicians. In 1999, Okean Elzy performed in France, and their new song "Сосни" won over Mikhail Kozyrev, the general producer of Nashe Radio, and as a result the band was invited to the big rock festival “Nashestvo”. At the same time, Okean Elzy won the Breakthrough of the Year and Song of the Year nominations at the “Таврійські ігри” festival for their song "Там де нас нема ". A reissue of the band's album is released in Russia, and the release of the film Brat-2, with the songs "Коли тебе нема" and "Кавачай" as the soundtrack, helps to finally drown Moscow in an ocean of Ukrainian music. The MTV channel aired the videos "Там де нас нема" and "Сосни", and the release of the second album "Янанебібув" took place on two labels at once - in Russia and Ukraine.

At the top of musical Olympus

In February 2000, keyboardist Dmitro Shurov, already known for his work with Zemfira, began working with Okean Elzy. With his participation, the musicians recorded their next album "Модель", which was released in 2001, and Dmitro Shurov became a member of the band's core line-up. In 2000 and 2001, Okean Elzy was named the best pop band at the  “Таврійські ігри” festival. In 2002, the songs " Друг" and "911" entered the Top 10 hits of Ukraine, and the same “Таврійські ігри” named Okean Elzy in the Best Rock Band nomination. The album " Модель" was recognised as "Album of the Year". At the same time, Okean Elzy performed for the first time with a symphony orchestra. In early 2003, work was completed on the band's fourth disc, “Суперсиметрія”, which went double platinum. In October of the same year, Okean Elzy became the headliner of the “Просто Рок” festival, and in December, they began their solo acoustic tour, “Тихий океан“.

Time for change

The year 2004 was a turning point in the band's history. In the summer, Yuriy Khustochka and Dmytro Shurov announced that they were leaving Okean Elzy and decided to create their own project together with Louis Frank. On 16 July 2004, the last concert of the band's "golden line-up" took place. In November, a new bassist Denys Dudko and a keyboardist from Serbia, Milos Jelic, joined the band. And in 2005, Petro Cherniavsky joined the band instead of Pavlo Hudimov. With this line-up, Okean Elzy released their next album, “GLORIA”, which went platinum in the first 6 hours of sale. In autumn, the band embarks on a concert tour in support of the album. Okean Elzy also began to participate in charity work.

In 2007, the band released the album “Міра”, which was dedicated to the memory of the band's sound producer Serhiy Tovstoluzhsky, who died in March of that year. Svyatoslav Vakarchuk also works on his own project and releases the album "Вночі", which was also written by the band members. In the spring of 2010, the album "DolceVita" was released, and during the tour in support of the disc, the musicians played more than 100 concerts in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Europe, the USA, Canada and Armenia. In addition, Svyatoslav Vakarchuk started working on another solo project called “Брюссель” (Brussel`), released two music videos and went on tour in support of the album.

In 2013, the members of Okean Elzy got together again and went to Brussels to record the album Earth. While working on the album, it became known that guitarist Petro Chernyavsky wanted to leave the band, who was later replaced by Vladimir Opsenitsa. In May of the same year, the album was released in Ukraine, Russia and Germany. This was followed by a stadium tour in support of the album, which lasted from May to September 2013 and started in Svyatoslav Vakarchuk's hometown of Mukachevo. Immediately after the tour was over, a new, 20th anniversary tour was announced. The concerts took place in all major cities of Ukraine. Including at the NSC Olimpiyskiy in Kyiv.

Three years later, the band presented the album "Без меж" in Kyiv, on the roof of a high-rise building in front of 140 people. On 19 May 2016, the album was made freely available on the Internet.

Okean Elzy - the latest

Svyatoslav Vakarchuk and Okean Elzy returned to concert activity only in 2018. Three singles were released: "Без тебе", "В небо жене" and "Скільки нас", and two music videos were filmed. In honour of Ukraine's Independence Day, Okean Elzy played a huge concert at the Olimpiyskiy National Sports Complex in Kyiv.

In 2019, Svyatoslav Vakarchuk created a political party. "Голос” and announced his decision to run in the early elections to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. He had previously served as a member of the Ukrainian parliament as a member of the “Батьківщина” party, but resigned his seat at his own request. The musician also left politics this time, but brought many ideological people to power.

In 2021, Okean Elzy released a joint track with Odyn w Kanoe, "Місто весни", about the city of Lviv. This is the first composition that the vocalist of Okean Elzy wrote about Lviv, although he considers it his native city.

After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the band released the songs "Місто Марії" and "Квіти мінних зон". The single "Місто Марії" is dedicated to the defenders of the city of Mariupol. And the video for "Квіти мінних зон" shows two dimensions of Ukrainian life side by side, the relatively calm everyday life in the rear and the life at the front. Since the beginning of the war, Svyatoslav Vakarchuk has joined the territorial defence of the Lviv region and also travels to the front to support the morale of the defenders. In 2023, he released the track "Коли ми двоє" in a duet with Ukrainian singer KOLA.

Albums:

1998 – “Там де нас нема”

2000 – “Янанебібув”

2001 – “Модель”

2003 – “Суперсиметрія”

2005  - “GLORIA”

2007 – “Міра”

2010 – “DolceVita”

2013 – “Земля”

2016 – “Без меж”

Crew:

• Svyatoslav Vakarchuk – vocals, lyrics.

• Denys Hlinin – drums

• Denys Dudko – bass

• Miloš Jelić – keyboards

• Volodymyr Opsenica – guitars