FEATURING SETS BY ERIK LAAR, ORI SHALVA AND DJ BUNCHA WITH VIRTUAL PERFORMANCES BY ONUKA AND MARYNA KRUT

TICKETS ON SALE HERE

NEW INTERNATIONAL BALAKLAVA TOUR DATES ANNOUNCED

TORONTO, ON – April 21, 2022 – Second Front Ukraine Foundation, Lighthouse Immersive and Blok Music Inc. will co-host SHELTER OUR SKY: an immersive fundraiser in support of Ukraine on Wednesday, April 27, at Lighthouse Immersive in Toronto. The cabaret style show will be headlined by Balaklava Blues, the Ukrainian folk-noir band that met and fell in love during the Revolution of Dignity and east Ukrainian war that acted as a precursor to Russia's recent full scale invasion. To date, they have helped to raise over $500,000 with concerts in Toronto, New York, Chicago, and Miami as well as with their ONLY FARE refugee aid campaign with Toronto photographer, Peter Lusztyk. Tickets are on sale here.

The exclusive 250 tickets are by donation on Eventbrite with a $50 minimum and 100% of proceeds will go to Second Front Ukraine Foundation. Members of Balaklava Blues are personally delivering all donations and humanitarian aid collected as they embark on their European tour via Warsaw on May 2. 

Balaklava Blues will be joined virtually by Ukrainian icons, Onuka and Maryna Krut, who will transmit exclusive sets from the embattled territories of Ukraine onto the 40 foot walls of the Toronto venue made famous by its Van Gogh exhibit.

Also performing live are Baltic folk hop producer Erik Laar, traditional Georgian polyphonic ensemble, Ori Shalva and DJ Buncha, who has put together a special VJ set of Ukrainian hits (i.e. popular music videos on a cinema-size screen with a banging sound system) including songs that have gone viral since the onset of the war like Pink Floyd's Hey Hey,  Rise Up featuring Andrij Hlyvniuk, lead singer of the popular rock band, Boombox.

In March, Balaklava Blues shared a timely new single called Shelter Our Sky. It arrived in tandem with their announcement of a collaborative NFT project that seeks to raise funds in support of COME BACK ALIVE, a Ukrainian NGO that helps Ukrainian military, volunteers, and their families on the basis of crowdfunding, inviting artists to contribute works inspired by the song, and its powerfully moving video. Listen to, and watch, Shelter Our Sky here and learn more about the campaign here. 

Balaklava Blues' repertoire and live show is motivated and inspired by a deep connection of Ukrainian roots and its relationship to/reaction against Russian aggression. They recently won a Stingray Rising Star Award for best showcase at Mundial Montreal and enjoyed 4 sold out shows at the Barbican Centre in London, where they wrote and performed the live score to Belarus Free Theatre's Dogs of Europe, a dystopian epic based on a scenario not dissimilar to what has been unfolding in Ukraine.

The duo will take their music on the road for an international tour through May - see below for all dates and don't miss them when they perform in your city! 
In March, Balaklava Blues shared a timely new single called Shelter Our Sky. It arrived in tandem with their announcement of a collaborative NFT project that seeks to raise funds in support of COME BACK ALIVE, a Ukrainian NGO that helps Ukrainian military, volunteers, and their families on the basis of crowdfunding, inviting artists to contribute works inspired by the song, and its powerfully moving video. Listen to, and watch, Shelter Our Sky here and learn more about the campaign here. 

Balaklava Blues' repertoire and live show is motivated and inspired by a deep connection of Ukrainian roots and its relationship to/reaction against Russian aggression. They recently won a Stingray Rising Star Award for best showcase at Mundial Montreal and enjoyed 4 sold out shows at the Barbican Centre in London, where they wrote and performed the live score to Belarus Free Theatre's Dogs of Europe, a dystopian epic based on a scenario not dissimilar to what has been unfolding in Ukraine.

The duo will take their music on the road for an international tour through May - see below for all dates and don't miss them when they perform in your city! 

Balaklava Blues Tour Dates
April 27 - Toronto, ON - Lighthouse Immersive
April 29 - Kitchener, ON - Neruda Arts Centre
May 4 - Vijandi, Estonia - Estonian Traditional Music Centre
May 6 - Tallinn, Estonia - Folktronica Stage, Tallinn Music Week
May 6 - Tallinn, Estonia - Made In Canada Stage, Tallinn Music Week
May 8 - Riga, Latvia - Kenepes Kulturas
May 9 - Vilnus, Lithuania - Polish Cultural Centre
May 10 - Kaunas, Lithuania - Dainavos Kino Teatras
May 11 - Liepaja, Latvia - WISE
May 13 - Miami, USA - Lauderhill Performing Arts Centre

DOWNLOAD - Balaklava Blues Press Photos by Zahra Saleki (@zahrasaleki)

DOWNLOAD - Shelter Our Sky Image Assets 

About Mark & Marichka Marczyk - Balaklava Blues
Balaklava Blues is the brainchild of Mark and Marichka Marczyk, creators of the multi-award winning guerrilla-folk-opera Counting Sheep and leaders of the mighty Lemon Bucket Orkestra – Canada’s notorious 12 piece balkan-party-punk-massive. Falling somewhere between a traditional song cycle and a full blown multimedia techno show, the duo fuses Ukrainian polyphony and other folk traditions with EDM, trap, dub step, and more as a launching pad to explore the seemingly never-ending blues that have long emanated from the Ukrainian steppe.

The two met there during the 2014 revolution of dignity and ever since, have dedicated their creative energy to telling the stories of their home country to the world. Their 2015 play Counting Sheep garnered major critical acclaim winning several awards at the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe – including a Fringe First award and Amnesty International’s Freedom of Speech award. It has since had multiple successful runs in The US, UK and Germany and is currently in the middle of a 2 month run headlining the Vault Festival in London until March 17th.

Mark and Marichka composed all the music for Counting Sheep – a story of love and revolution – and four of the songs are on this debut release. “Balaklava Blues music is a reclamation of the violence perpetrated on my home country,” says Mark Marczyk, who spent years back and forth between Ukraine and Canada before meeting Marichka there. “We want to redesign and remix physical and psychological oppression and question how and why it continues to inform who we are and what we can become.”