Dakh Daughters
High-stakes theatrical punk and dark cabaret from Kyiv. A seven-woman whirlwind of cello, upright bass, and polyphonic defiance for the avant-garde soul.
High-stakes theatrical punk and dark cabaret from Kyiv. A seven-woman whirlwind of cello, upright bass, and polyphonic defiance for the avant-garde soul.
Dakh Daughters sounds like a fever dream staged in a crumbling European opera house. It is a collision of high art and raw, visceral energy, where classical strings and upright bass provide a skeletal framework for seven voices that shift from operatic trills to guttural punk shouts in a single breath. The music feels ancient and urgent at the same time, drawing on deep folk traditions while smashing them against the jagged edges of modern industrial life.
What makes them truly distinctive is their use of 'freak cabaret' as a vehicle for complex intellectualism. They don't just sing; they perform a linguistic collage, weaving together Shakespearean sonnets, Ukrainian folk poetry, and modern literature across five different languages. The production is often sparse but heavy, relying on the natural resonance of wooden instruments and the sheer force of human breath to create a sound that is physically demanding and emotionally overwhelming.
Start with the album 'IF' to hear their most cohesive studio statement, or watch the video for 'Rozy / Donbass' to witness the visual and sonic power that made them a symbol of Ukrainian cultural resistance. It is music for people who want their art to have teeth, history, and a sense of absolute fearlessness.
Dakh Daughters is a Ukrainian music and theatre project started in 2012 in Kyiv. The band consists of seven women, who play on various instruments and sing in different languages (Ukrainian, English, French, German, Russian) and dialects of Ukrainian. They often use texts by famous authors in their lyrics (e.g. Taras Shevchenko, William Shakespeare, Joseph Brodsky, Charles Bukowski, Shaggy). Dakh Daughters participants are members of different projects such as DakhaBrakha and Perkalaba. The band's name derives from the Dakh theater which is associated with the project. The band became famous after publishing on YouTube the music video "Rozy / Donbass", based on Shakespeare's Sonnet 35 and Ukrainian folk songs. Also well-known is the video of their live performance on Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kyiv during the early Euromaidan protests in December 2013. Dakh Daughters has performed in various Ukrainian cities, as well as outside of the country (in Poland, Czech Republic, France, Russia and Brazil). They have taken part in such events as Zaxidfest, Gogolfest, Silent films festival in Odesa etc. The first band's studio album, IF, containing 9 tracks, was released in November 2016. The second, AIR, came out in April 2019. Dakh Daughters was featured prominently in the 2019 Ukrainian musical comedy film Hutsulka Ksenya. "Through their music and their songs, it is the notions of heritage and identity that are questioned, summoning both classical texts – such as Shakespeare's Sonnet 35 – and Ukrainian folk songs. These poems or stories sung, chanted, rapped, always question the universal and timeless struggle of Man for the defense of his freedom and his affiliations. Thus, the Dakh Daughters manage to elaborate a poetry of anger to the rhythm of the drums of war, the sobs of the violins and the frenzied hope of 'Ukraine on fire'." They performed at WOMAD in 2023 where their freaky cabaret style was well received.
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