It’s been a solid three years since we heard Ukraine’s Vøvk for the first time, but it didn’t take more than a couple of songs for us to know they’d soon be an underground prog favorite. Each track they’ve put out in tease of Litera since then has gotten stuck in our heads for totally different reasons, and now that the whole thing is out we can repeat the process, and so can you.
It’s also an interesting ration when it comes to the composition itself, because things seem to get split in thirds – there’s a dynamic balancing act that takes places across both the songs and the album, always dangling prog, math rock, and groovy stoner metal in the listener’s faces as easy reference points, but never complete descriptors.
You can feel how those genres, even outliers that transcend them, from Deftones and Loathe to Norma Jean and A Lot Like Birds, or even more radio friendly stuff like Tool or Breaking Benjamin might have shaped Litera‘s overall massive scope. The guitars and bass are huge, the drums mix in traditional percussion and jazz elements, and the vocals are soaring without being needlessly Olympian about it. In brief, the whole thing is grounded, even humble in the face of the scale of what it actually manages to do as an album
So yeah – everyone shines. But there’s also a stark contrast to the achievement, adding levels of subtext potentially obscured via language barrier. Suffice it to say, Litera is more than something meaningful and symbolic. It’s an artifact of survival.
Check out the press release:
‘Litera’ is an emotional landscape in times of upheaval. Struggle, loss, pain, hope, and renewal unfold like natural cycles: from drought to wildfire, from flood to drying shores. Images of earth, water, fire, animals, and landscapes shape a multilayered space where every listener can trace their own reflection of the journey.
In our story, the intuitive intertwines with the conscious, and the musical canvas moves freely – from progressive rock to post-hardcore – absorbing shades of other genres to create a distinct voice of its own. While all the lyrics are in Ukrainian, the emotional core of the album resonates in a raw, universal way. For music speaks a universal language.
The title of the album emphasizes the power of the letter as the fundamental unit of culture and civilization: a letter is the smallest building block of language, from which words are born, and from words – stories, poetry, and songs.
Collaboration is a vital part of this album. Choir parts were performed by members of fellow Ukrainian bands – Zwyntar, Omana, Straytones, Svitaie – forming a polyphonic ensemble, each voice carrying its own unique charisma. Special highlights include the spoken word of Maksym Chukhlib (Doky Ye Chym Dykhaty), a collaboration with Johannes Persson (Cult of Luna), who for the first time in his career sang in Ukrainian, and the closing monologue by Anton Slepakov, which tears away the final curtain, exposing the thematic lines woven throughout the record.
These voices embody a living reflection of solidarity and shared strength – making ‘Litera’ both a collective statement and a deeply personal one.
Ukraine has a pretty steady flow when it comes to bands that blend the familiar to make something unique, and Vøvk are a great addition to the list. hHere’s to a time and place for more in the future.
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