CLANDESTINO BOTNIK | BOTNIK STUDIOS | 24 JULI 2015

Their ability to understand the beauty and pain of the world around them drove them perform for a group of surrounded Ukrainian soldiers in the Crimea, while Russian soldiers patrolled just a stone’s throw from the stage. They received standing ovations from both sides.

Since forming in Minsk, Belarus in 2006, Port Mone have become a favourite of Eastern European music critics. Their music is touched with classical times, rumbling artillery fire and folk music in a way that has won them the hearts of fans in Poland, Croatia and Russia. It is the musical chroniclers of contemporary history that are coming to your city.

Its debut album “Dip” released by an independent label Geometry (Russia) brought them recognition and international acclaim. It was noted by the critics and won “Foreign Experts’ Prize” at Experty.by annual awards in Belarus (voted by critics from Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Ukraine). It was called the best foreign album of 2009 in Croatia, and was nominated for highly respectable “Steppenwolf Award” as “The best album” and “The music” of 2010 in Russia.

In 2012 Ukrainian based label “Nash Format” released the album ”The Khmeleva project” – common project of Port Mone trio and Ukrainian etno-chaos band DakhaBrakha.

In 2013 the trio produced soundtrack to silent movie “Khlib” (1929, UA). The DVD was released in 2014 by National Oleksandr Dovzhenko Centre, UA.

New album “Thou”, recorded in the unusual acoustic conditions in the midst of a forest, was released on Hevhetia label (Slovakia) in 2014.

Critics point out that Port Mone is a brand-new phenomenon that is difficult to fit into the stylistic forms as the music of the trio links classical music, jazz, noise, experimental and folk music.