I am very bad at keeping track of new music releases, even from bands I love. Perhaps there is a service that notifies you when a “new album from a band on your list has been released” — that would be wonderful.
As a result, I usually check for new releases only occasionally, especially before a trip, because I enjoy sitting on a plane, putting on my headphones, closing my eyes, and detaching myself from all the hustle and bustle around me.
This time, for the trip, I decided to load the latest albums of the band Tantsy Minus, which I have loved since their mega-success in 1999. Since then, a few of their songs have remained in my playlist, including my favorite Polovinka from their very first studio album. Vyacheslav Petkun, the band’s leader, has a very unique, raspy voice. But as his career has shown, he is also an extremely talented singer. After all, it was his voice, with its raspiness, that was chosen for the role in the musical Notre Dame de Paris, where the legendary Garou performs in the original. Yet Petkun sang wonderfully in the Russian version too, which I did not expect from him at all.
But let us return to the new albums. At first, I was not particularly impressed by what I heard; some lyrics even left me puzzled. However, I finally got to the last two songs from the album 8. And this is where it truly struck a chord with me.
When Za Shagom Shag (“Step by Step”) started playing, at first, I did not quite understand what the author was trying to tell me. But then the word “Minsk” suddenly came up, and it hit me like a revelation. I rushed to verify my guess online, and I found it. In December 2020, Vyacheslav Petkun released this song in memory of Roman Bondarenko, who was murdered in his own courtyard by thugs from Lukashenko’s circle—people who have yet to face any accountability for their actions.
Roman was an artist and manager who lived near the courtyard, which had been dubbed the “Square of Changes” during the protests because of a mural that appeared there. After Roman’s death, information surfaced suggesting that he had painted that mural. The last words Roman wrote in the courtyard chat, as he went downstairs to stop vandals who were tearing down white-red-white ribbons (a symbol of independent Belarus and the protests), were, “I am going out.”
Knowing all this, Vyacheslav Petkun’s lyrics take on an entirely different meaning. I had known nothing about this song by Tantsy Minus until now, and I am deeply moved with genuine respect and gratitude toward Vyacheslav Petkun for creating it.
And right after this rather somber song on the album comes S Volnym Vetrom (“With the Free Wind”), which is much more positive both in its lyrics and in its performance, as it is sung by children on the album. Whose children they are, I could not find out. There is no music video for the song, but it is wonderful:
Interestingly, the song was performed on the radio back in 2018 and was apparently released as a single under the title Naperegonki (“Racing”), where it was sung by Vyacheslav himself. However, I like the studio version with the children much more. Online, I was only able to find this small snippet of the original performance:
