Last year, Ulster trio TRÚ released their remarkable debut album No Fixed Abode which was nominated for BEST ALBUM at the Northern Ireland Music Prize 2021. TRÚ features multi-instrumentalist, arranger and producer Michael Mormecha, guitarist and singer Zach Trouton and Dónal Kearney on flute and whistle who’s also folk singer brought up in the Irish language tradition.
Earlier this month, they released a charity single, Plyve Kacha (The Duckling Swims). All proceeds from the track will be going to Ukrainian and Palestinian charities.
They say:
“It’s a Ukrainian folk song we arranged as a small gesture to the people of Ukraine and everybody living under brutal oppression.”
According to the BBC’s Irena Taranyuk, while the title of the folk song translates as “the duckling swims”, it’s a dialogue between a mother and her son.
In an interview, she shared: “I knew this song for a number of years as something very mournful and sad. I used to have a good cry about it when I felt down. It is a lament. It is about a young soldier, a young recruit going off to fight in foreign wars and him having a dialogue with his mother, saying ‘My dear mother, what will happen to me if I die in a foreign land?’ and she tells him ‘Well, my dearest, you will be buried by other people.’ It’s really poignant and sad.”
Like their album, TRÚ are masters of creating beautiful sonic backdrops, Plyve Kacha is no exception, it is intensely moving.
Order it here: https://truband3.bandcamp.com/