Flëur was a musical collective from the

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

city of

Odesa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrati ...

, being unique for the Ukrainian musical scene. The collective was based around the two original members and frontwomen Olga Pulatova (Ольга Пулатова) and Olena Voinarovska (Олена Войнаровська) who wrote the lyrics, performed vocals and wrote most of the music. Although in later years, the whole collective took part in making music and arrangements, lyrics were still written solely by Olena and Olga. Flëur's musical genre is hard to define as it combines many influences. Flëur originated as cooperation of the two singer-songwriters and the music still bears a tiny resemblance to the genre, yet from the very beginning it was in a way different from typical singer-songwriter music. The first official releases also had a touch of neoclassic/

ethereal Ethereal may refer to: * Ethereal (horse), a horse that won Australia's Caulfield Cup as well as Melbourne Cup in 2001 *Ethereal wave, or simply ethereal, a subgenre of dark wave music *Wireshark, formerly named Ethereal, a free and open-source pac ...

music. Because of the difficulties with picking the right term for Flëur's music, the collective itself created the term "cardiowave" (which later gave title to an independent recording label from Odessa which was releasing some of Flëur's sideprojects), but when it comes to more usual terms Flëur usually gets labeled as

dream pop Dream pop (also typeset as dreampop) is a subgenre of alternative rock and neo-psychedelia that emphasizes atmosphere and sonic texture as much as pop melody. Common characteristics include breathy vocals, dense productions, and effects such as ...

. The texts of the label

Prikosnovénie Prikosnovénie (russian: Прикоснове́ние) is a French independent record label founded in Nantes in 1990 in music, 1990 by Frédéric Chaplain and Sabine Adélaïde who moved to its current home in the medieval city of Clisson in 200 ...

spoke of resemblance with

Cocteau Twins Cocteau Twins was a Scottish rock band active from 1979 to 1997. They were formed in Grangemouth by Robin Guthrie (guitars, drum machine) and Will Heggie (bass), adding Elizabeth Fraser (vocals) in 1981 and replacing Heggie with multi-instrum ...

All about Eve ''All About Eve'' is a 1950 American Drama (film and television), drama film written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck. It is based on the 1946 short story "The Wisdom of Eve" by Mary Orr, although Orr does ...

and

Bel Canto Bel canto (Italian for "beautiful singing" or "beautiful song", )—with several similar constructions (''bellezze del canto'', ''bell'arte del canto'')—is a term with several meanings that relate to Italian singing. The phrase was not associat ...

Band history

Flëur was formed by Olga Pulatova and Olena Voinarovska in

Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...

in February 2000. In March 2000 flautist Yuliya Zemlyana joined them. According to an autobiographical story by Olga Pulatova, it was Yuliya who came up with "Flëur" as a title for their collective. On 17 March they had their first live concert in Odessa. During 2000 and 2001 they were joined by Kateryna Serbina (

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

), Oleksiy Tkachevsky (

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

), Vitaliy Didyk (

contrabass Contrabass (from it, contrabbasso) refers to several musical instruments of very low pitch—generally one octave below bass register instruments. While the term most commonly refers to the double bass (which is the bass instrument in the orchest ...

) and Oleksiy Dovhaliov(

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

). The first official release was the CD "Touch" (which is English translation of "Прикосновение") released on the independent French label

. Only the album's title was translated to English — all the lyrics and song titles in the CD's booklet are in Russian. One month later the Ukrainian edition of the album came out under the original title "Прикосновение". Two more releases followed on the

label, but these were also the last ones on this label. After that Flëur was mostly released in

CIS Cis or cis- may refer to: Places * Cis, Trentino, in Italy * In Poland: ** Cis, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, south-central ** Cis, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, north Math, science and biology * cis (mathematics) (cis(''θ'')), a trigonome ...

countries. Currently Flëur has 8 officially released albums plus reissues of two early releases. The song "Шелкопряд" ("Silkworm") had the first place in "Chart Dozen" hit-parade of Russian radio

Nashe Radio Nashe Radio (russian: Наше радио, ''Our Radio'', pronounced ''Nashe radio'') is a Russian Rock music radio station. It was designed to promote Russian rock bands, as opposed to pop and Western music. Nashe is based in Moscow and broadca ...

— Flëur was awarded the "Chart crack" prize as best new band of 2007. From their inception Flëur's popularity continued slowly but steadily growing. Besides live performances in their hometown of

and

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

, the collective also toured extensively in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

from 2007 to 2012, including many live performances in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

which presented them with a full house. Flëur has also performed live on radio several times, had a TV slot for the song "Искупление" ("Redemption") on the Ukrainian music TV-channel M1 (video directed by Yevhen Tymokhin (Євген Тимохін), musical arrangement made by Pavlo Shevchuk (Павло Шевчук) — the producer of

Mumiy Troll Mumiy Troll (russian: Му́мий Тро́лль ) is a Russian rock group, founded in 1983 in Vladivostok by vocalist and songwriter Ilya Lagutenko (). The band's name translates as "mummy troll" and is a pun on '' Mumintroll'', the children's ...

band). Two more albums were released in the following years: "The Awakening" in spring 2012 and "Storm Warning" in 2014. In early 2017, the band announced that they would be breaking up after playing three last concerts in May. Following Flëur's dissolution, Pulatova and Voinarovska have continued working on their solo musical careers.

Side projects

Many current and former band members also participated in other musical projects. * Ольга Пулатова (Olga Pulatova) was a vocalist on the projects "Аэроплан" ("Airplane") and "Оля и Монстр" ("Olya and The Monster") (both defunct now), and cooperated closely with the project "Dust Heaven". * Олена Войнаровська (Olena Voinarovska), Олексій Ткачевський (Oleksiy Tkachevsky), former Flëur member Олексій Довгалєв (Oleksiy Dovhaliev), Катерина Котельникова (Kateryna Kotelnykova) and Анастасія Кузьміна (Anastasiya Kuzmina) took part in the projects "МРФ" ("Мой розовый фашистик", "My Little Pink Fascist") and the English language project "Amurekimuri". * Олексій Довгальов (Oleksiy Dovhaliov) also has his own project "The Клюквінs" ("The Klukwins", «klukwa» means cranberry in Russian). * Алла Лужецька (Alla Luzhetska) and Анастасія Кузьміна (Anastasiya Kuzmina) take part in the project "ТИМ" ("Тайный Институт Мозга", "Secret Brain Institute"). * Former Flёur member Юлія Земляна (Yulia Zemlyana) takes part in the projects "Аддарая" ("Addaraya") and "Inversus". * Євгеній Чеботаренко (Yevheniy Chebotarenko) has his own group "My Personal Murderer".

Members

* Ольга Пулатова (Olga Pulatova) —

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

* Олена Войнаровська (Olena Voinarovska) —

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

* Олексій Ткачевський (Oleksiy Tkachevsky) —

* Катерина Котельникова (Kateryna Kotelnykova) —

* Анастасія Кузьміна (Anastasiya Kuzmina) —

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

* Євгеній Чеботаренко (Yevgeniy Chebotarenko) —

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

Former members

* Юлія Земляна (Yulia Zemlyana) —

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

* Катерина Сербіна (Kateryna Serbina) —

* Олексій Довгальов (Oleksiy Dovhaliov) —

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

* Віталій Дідик (Vitaliy Didyk) —

* Олександра Дідик (Aleksandra Didyk) —

* Алла Лужецька (Alla Luzhetska) —

* Владислав Міцовський (Vladyslav Mitsovsky) —

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

* Георгій Матвіїв (Georgiy Matviyiv) —

bandura A bandura ( uk, банду́ра) is a Ukrainian plucked string folk instrument. It combines elements of the zither and lute and, up until the 1940s, was also often referred to by the term kobza. Early instruments (c. 1700) had 5 to 12 strings ...

Session Members

* Володимир Нессі (Volodymyr Nessi) —

* Андрій Басов (Andriy Basov) —

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

* Alex Kozmidi — electric guitar, bass guitar * Георгій Матвіїв (Georgiy Matviyiv)

Discography

Albums, released in Russia and Ukraine

* 2002 — Прикосновение ("Soft Touch") * 2003 — Волшебство ("Magic") * 2004 — Сияние ("Shining") * 2006 — Всё вышло из-под контроля ("Everything is out of control") * 2008 — Эйфория ("Euphoria") * 2008 — Почти живой ("Almost alive") and Сердце ("Heart") — reissue of unofficial releases from the years 2000–2001 "Почти живой" "Сердце" * 2010 — Тысяча светлых ангелов ("Thousands of bright angels") * 2012 — Пробуждение ("Awakening") * 2014 — Штормовое предупреждение ("Storm Warning")

Albums released in France

* 2002 — Prikosnovenie ("Soft Touch") French edition of "Прикосновение". * 2003 — Volshebstvo ("Magic") French edition of "Волшебство". * 2004 — Siyanie ("Shine") French edition of "Сияние".

Collections

* 2007 — Флёрография ("Fleurography") * 2007 — Трилогия ("Trilogy"): "Прикосновение"/"Soft Touch", "Волшебство"/"Magic" and "Сияние"/"Shining" * 2008 — Discography (all albums in MP3)

Singles

* 2007 (December) — Два Облака ("Two clouds")

Unofficial releases

* 2000 (July) — Почти живой ("Almost alive") * 2001 (January) — Сердце ("Heart") * 2001 (November) — Special Edition

External links

References

Interview with Olga Pulatova
for Live174.ru (RUS)

for ThyDoom.com music portal (RUS)
Electronic version of Fleur interview
fo
НАШ
magazine {{DEFAULTSORT:Fleur Ukrainian musical groups Prikosnovénie artists