Fleur

Fleur translates as “flower” in French. Rooted in Odessa and performing in Russian, the ensemble fuses rock, new age, and neo-classical idioms, conveying through its music the same fragile quality the name suggests. Layered female vocals, classical strings and flutes, electronic programming, and distorted electric guitars generate contrasting qualities of intimacy and intensity, immediacy and timelessness. Although Enya remains the nearest stylistic reference point, the Ukrainian group maintains a distinct identity that incorporates gothic atmosphere together with sonic echoes of Soviet film scores, Russian and Ukrainian folk traditions, and world-music fusion, especially the approach pioneered by Enigma.

At its core Fleur consists of Olga Pulatova on piano and lead vocals and Elena Voinarovskaya on guitar and lead vocals; the two songwriters and performers began rehearsing together in February 2000. They gradually drew around them flutist Yulia Zemlyanaya, cellist Ekaterina Serbina, and drummer Alexei Tkachevskii. After initial local performances in Odessa, music journalist Dmitrii Vekov offered support and assumed the role of producer. In early 2001 the band played its first concert outside Odessa, in Kiev, added Vitalii Didyk on contrabass and Alexei Dovgalyov on sequencer, and began recording its debut album at Fortuna Studio in Odessa. By December 2001 the French label Prikosnovenie had proposed releasing the album internationally, excluding Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. The self-titled record Prikosnovenie (Touch) appeared in France in September 2002 and reached Ukrainian listeners only two months later, an outcome that highlighted the French company’s earlier awareness of the group.

Work on the second album, Volshebstvo (Magic), commenced at Stolitsa Studio in Kiev already in February 2002. The sonic palette shifted with the arrival of violinist Anastasia Kuzmina and cellist Alexandra Didik, while Ekaterina Kotelnikova replaced Alexey Dovgalyov on synthesizer. The album reached Ukrainian stores in November 2003 alongside a reissue of Prikosnovenie and appeared in France in April 2004. One month earlier Vladimir Filippov’s Arts Fund had become the band’s patron, thereby relieving its financial pressures and allowing greater focus on creative activity.

Whereas Volshebstvo required thirteen months to complete, the third album Siyanie (Radiance) was tracked in a single month, December 2003, and issued in Ukraine in August 2004 and in France in June 2005. Alla Luzhetskaya assumed the flute chair in May 2004. Siyanie marked Fleur’s first broad recognition among critics and audiences in both Ukraine and Russia. Concert appearances, previously infrequent, became regular from summer 2004 onward. In November 2004 management responsibilities transferred to the Master U.O.R.T. Production Producer Center, an organization linked to Vladimir Filippov’s Arts Fund, prompting an intensive touring schedule that included initial shows in Moscow and Saint Petersburg in June 2005.

Vsyo Vishlo Iz-Pod Kontrolya (Everything Is Out of Control) followed in April 2006, and Fleurography appeared the next year.