A two-week artistic residency in Istanbul — an intermodal composition incorporating Turkish maqam structures.
DakhaBrakha received an invitation to the 18th Istanbul Biennale of Contemporary Art — as the audio partner of the 'Memory Route' installation by Ukrainian curator Konstantin Akinsha. The residency will last two weeks (3-17 September 2026) at Istanbul Modern. As part of the residency, DakhaBrakha will create an intermodal composition that combines Ukrainian polyphonic tradition with Turkish maqam structures and Arabic melismatics. Work on the composition began in November 2025 — band members visited Istanbul for half a month for studies with Turkish musician Munir Beken (maqam theory) and Syrian singer Wassim Yousif (melismatics and ornamentation). Separately, field recordings of Istanbul's Armenian church polyphony from the Ottoman period were studied — as the 'lost bridge' between Ukrainian and Turkish sacred music. The composition's premiere — 'Pereval Between Cities' — will take place at the official opening of the Biennale on 5 September. The recording will be released as an audio-installation EP later in 2026 on the joint label Istanbul Modern Music + AlexisRecords. A separate part — a public lecture by DakhaBrakha at Bilgi University on the art of 'cultural crossings' in wartime. The residency is funded by a Goethe-Institut grant and the Ukrainian Institute.
