What does Heinali and Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko sound like?

Exotic and expressive modular synth work paired with authentic traditional Ukrainian vocals.

The review of Гільдеґарда (Hildergard) by Heinali and Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko

Readers of Higher Plain Music will know I’ve followed and written about Heinali’s superb modular synth compositions over the years. His music has been almost exclusively instrumental, but for this captivating release, he is changing the format. Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko is a singer who embodies authentic Ukrainian folk singing. It is similar to Georgian and Bulgarian singing, but has its own unique timbre and depth. ‘Hildergard’ as an album is a concept one, and it’s an album that bleeds Ukraine down to the root in a hair-raising manner.

The album contains only three tracks, but with two of them nearly reaching 20 minutes each, you are getting a full album performance. Whilst not historically informed, Heinali drew from the visions of 12th-century Abbess, composer and mystic Hildegard von Bingen for inspiration. Hildergard’s visions were preceded by painful flashes of light. Heinali found a similar surge of pain from a Russian missile that struck not far from his studio in Kyiv. That allowed him to explore wartime experiences from a slightly elevated, removed perspective. Just like art and music in Ukraine are surviving today, Ukrainian folk singing has survived despite the Soviet occupation’s attempts to replace it. Both the traditional and the modern collide here in a pact of unity and strength. It is an important backdrop to place the music upon.

‘O Ignis Spiritus’ is a song of two halves. The first half has Heinali’s modular synths stay low and brooding. Their textural drones sizzle and guzzle, licking their lips to let loose and reign free. It is Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko’s voice that steals the show for the first 9 minutes. Singing about giving the gift of light and life, she commands cathartic release after release, balancing lamenting sadness and powerful vulnerability often in a single line. As she reaches a fever pitch and final cry, Saienko exits the track to hand it over to Heinali’s modular synths. They then begin to unfold like rays of twinkling afterglow lights, buzzing and whirring away like tiny ants. Sonically, it’s as if the opening half is the command from the Gods, and the second half is the scatterbrained chaos of life that millions of tiny creatures bring to Earth. It’s utterly captivating.

The second track, clocking in at 20 minutes, is ‘O Tu Suavissima Virga’. Whereas power personified the previous vocals, here Andriana-Yaroslava is quiet as a mouse. Her voice is recorded dry and up close, like a lonely lost child’s lullaby. The devotional lyrics take on a funeral drone tone as it is so intimate and naked to the ear. From around the five-minute mark to the ten-minute mark, the vocals begin to pick up more dynamic range. Hildegard was known for using an extreme tonal range in his compositions, and this is where the vocals mirror a similar approach. From bent and tilted notes to vocal gymnastics, we swap from an upper register angelic approach to a traditional Ukrainian folk delivery in a lower register for the second half. Again, it is utterly captivating, and as the vocals are so fluid and expressive, 17 minutes go by in a flash. By that time, the vocals fade away, leaving the single tone drone from Heinali to sizzle and fry like an ’80s nuclear Tangerine Dream.

A final bonus track is included, too. The comparatively short ‘Zelenaia Dubrovonka’ is more poetic lyrically, singing of a Muscovite striking at the root of a green oak grove. As it is the shortest track on the album, it has the quickest escalation to neckhair raising traumatic release. The modular synths increasingly break rank from their drone notes, as if they are escaping a hornet’s nest. Saienko’s voice becomes more laboured and impassioned as she sings of each strike and trample she takes. It’s one hell of a performance and rounds off the album perfectly with a primal release of energy.

The teaming up of primal, traditional Ukrainian folk singing and the numbing, dystopian-tinged future of modular synths is a match made in heaven. The pair work off each other like symbiotic artists, knowing when to support and when to step back. This is not an easy listen, given the 20-minute track lengths, but it is an important and compelling listen. Spellbinding and mystical.

Recommended track: Zelenaia Dubrovonka

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