Ukrainian Gothic Portal (Український Готичний Портал, UGP) is a printed magazine, web-portal and promotion agency of

gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

dark Darkness, the direct opposite of lightness, is defined as a lack of illumination, an absence of visible light, or a surface that absorbs light, such as black or brown. Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low lum ...

/ electro scene in

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 ...

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 ...

and

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

.
UGP was established in 1999 on basis of unofficial closed subculture formation Kiev Gothic Clan (KGC) and was officially registered in 2000 on the domain gothic.com.ua. The founder and ideologist of UGP was the author of gothic-related publications, Vitaliy Stranger. In 2000–2005, UGP became one of the leading dark music-related agencies in

and

, covered by local and international press, organizing festival "Deti Nochi: Chorna Rada", publishing printed magazine "Gothica", releasing cds on label "Tridens", making its own radio program and TV appearances. Cooperation partners of UGP became such festivals as

Wave-Gotik-Treffen The Wave-Gotik-Treffen (WGT; ) is an annual world festival for "dark" music and "dark culture" in Leipzig, Germany. 150+ bands and artists from various backgrounds (gothic rock, gothic metal, EBM, industrial, noise, darkwave, neo-folk, neo-cl ...

, Castle Party, such magazines as

Zillo ''Zillo'' (or ''Zillostrierte'') was a German alternative music magazine, published monthly, originally edited by Rainer "Easy" Ettler. It was in circulation between 1989 and 2014. The headquarters of ''Zillo'' were in Lübeck. History The magaz ...

Orkus ''Orkus'' is a monthly German music and culture magazine published by the Zoomia Media Group. Despite its subtitle ("Gothic - romantic - industrial - electro") and its web tagline ("Das Magazin fur Dark Rock-Electro-Gothic Rock-Dark Metal & More"), ...

and other organizations in Europe. The aims of UGP were the creation, development and coverage of

/ electro scene in Ukraine and in all countries of ex-

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

as well as uniting scene-fans and admirers of respective aesthetics. Among the most famous projects of UGP has to be mentioned the establishment of the festival (2000), label Tridens Records (2003) and printed magazine "Gothica" (2006): * Festival is gothic/dark/electro event in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and other countries of ex-

* Label ''Tridens Records'' is gothic/dark/electro studio in Ukraine * Printed magazine ''Gothica'' is Russian-speaking music magazine Since 1999 the numerous projects had been launched for the achievement of assigned aims. UGP conducted following functions: * As a multifunctional online portal gothic.com.ua it developed informational and news resources (publication of materials, reportages and photo galleries from various events in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

etc.), started specialized sections (“Music”, “Cinema”, “Literature”, “Architecture”, “Photo”, “Art”, “Translations”), designed sites of bands (

Komu Vnyz Komu Vnyz ( uk, Кому Вниз, ) is a Ukrainian rock band founded in 1988. Komu Vnyz's music is a blend of gothic and industrial styles, combined with the lyrics of ancient Ukrainian legends. The band name is a '' perestroika''-era derogat ...

, Fleur, Holodne Sonze etc.) and official Russian-language sites of festivals (

, M’era Luna, Castle Party), and also began to create and manage interactive services (GothicJournal, GothicGallery, BlackPages). * Being a management, production and booking agency, it supported various bands, among them are

Flëur Flëur was a musical collective from the Ukrainian city of Odesa, being unique for the Ukrainian musical scene. The collective was based around the two original members and frontwomen Olga Pulatova (Ольга Пулатова) and Olena Voinarovs ...

, Dust Heaven, Holodne Sonze. * UGP organized more than 20 performances of bands and Djs, whom it supports, in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and

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 ...

at the international festivals:

(2002, 2004, 2007), Castle Party (2001, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009), Prague in Dark (2006), Electro Prague (2007). In 2010 UGP started to work with Russian band

Otto Dix Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix (; 2 December 1891 – 25 July 1969) was a German painter and printmaker, noted for his ruthless and harshly realistic depictions of German society during the Weimar Republic and the brutality of war. Along with Geor ...

and organized their concert on Castle Party 2010.
* As an organizer of the concerts in

, UGP organized the concerts Diary of dreams, Diary of Dreams (Germany),

Deutsch Nepal Deutsch Nepal is an industrial and dark ambient project created in 1991 by Swedish musician Peter Andersson. History Under the name Deutsch Nepal, Andersson has issued eight studio albums, a couple of singles, the originally tape-only Silent ...

(Sweden ) and other international and domestic bands. * It also began to issue and license the material of supported bands in Germany and Poland for such compilations as "Gotham", "Dark East", "Castle Party" and also helped bands to take part in remix-contests: Gray/scale for Wumpscut,

Funker Vogt Funker Vogt () is a German electronic-industrial music project with an aggressive style, formed by vocalist Jens Kästel and programmer Gerrit Thomas in 1995. Other members of the band are keyboardist/manager Björn Böttcher, live guitarist Fr ...

, Agonized by Love, Deathcamp Project, Holodne Sonze for

L'Âme Immortelle L'Âme Immortelle (French for "the immortal soul") is an Austrian darkwave duo. Many of L'Âme Immortelle's songs feature melancholy or lovelorn lyrics in German or English, and juxtaposed harsh male and emotional female vocals. In 2004 they sw ...

. As achievement of UGP, praised by local Ukrainian press, can be stated the organization of the concerts of three Ukrainian bands (Komu Vnyz, Dust Heaven, Grayscale) at festival

at once in both 2004 and 2007. At the present team of UGP continues to increase its activity in

and

as well as in other European countries and works on one more book about gothic-scene in ex-

and

Notes

References

* Article about history and development of Ukrainian gothic/dark scene "Men in black" in business weekly magazine "Power of society" (No. 51, September 2005), author: Olga Volodchenko * Article "Gothic for the masses" in "Highway" online-magazine
h.ua
, author: Olga Volodchenko * Article "Goths" in weekly "Afisha" (No. 21, 30.05 - 05.06, 2005)
gotic.org.ua

gothic.org.ua
* Article "Notes for the goths: Deti Nochi 4" in magazine "Hammer" (No. 17, 2007)
gotic.org.ua
, author: Oleksandra Vasylchuk * Article "Ukrainian goths celebrated the night" in magazine "Review" (25.04.2007)
gothic.org.ua
, author: Efim Alexandrov * Article "Goths between us" in magazine "Everning news" (No. 196, 25.12.2003)
gothic.com.ua
, author: Alexander Evtushenko * Article about Ukrainian gothic scene "Vitaliy aus Kiew denkt duester" and biography of Vitaliy Stranger in German magazine "Leipziger Volskszeitung" (No. 196, 25.12.2003)
gothic.com.ua
, author: Eddie Stein * Article "Gothic in Ukraine: For those who's going down and those who need cold sun", magazine "R.I.P." (No.1, June/July 2005)

, author: Olga Safina * Interview "Ideologist of ukrainian gothic Vitaliy Stranger: Dark angel with axe protects Ukraine" in political magazine "Ukrainian truth" (No. 196, 29.08.2004)

, author: Nasty Snezhnaja * Interview "Ukrainian gothic is a power of spirit" in literature digest "Ukrainian word" (No. 13, 27.02 - 04.03, 2003)
gothic.com.ua
, author: Nasty Snezhnaja * Article and interview "Men in black" in weekly "Afisha" (No. 42, 25.10 - 10.11, 2003)
gothic.com.ua

External links

*{{Official, http://www.gothic.com.ua/
Official site of festival "Deti Nochi: Chorna Rada"Official site of magazine "Gothica"Official site of label "Tridens"
1999 establishments in Ukraine Magazines established in 1999 Magazines published in Ukraine Music magazines Multilingual magazines