Obiymy Doshchu

2004—2006, band formation, first recordings

Obiymy Doshchu was started as a one-man project in 2004 as a result of Volodymyr's interest in writing music, singing and playing an acoustic guitar. His friend Oleksiy became involved in the project and helped Volodymyr record his first demo, and the demo in turn inspired his university mate Mykola to make a video for one of the songs (Mertve Derevo I Viter).^[5]

In spring 2006 Volodymyr forms the band with Oleksiy on the keyboards and Mykola on the bass guitar. In this lineup the band makes its first live performance in Kiev.

In Autumn, Oleksiy replaces keyboards with electric guitar and Andriy Demyanenko joins the band as a keyboards player. The band continues to create new songs and occasionally perform live. During this time, Oleksiy finishes the second video of the band (for the song Zorenko Moya).^[6] At the end of the year, Obiymy Doshchu record their second demo with 6 songs.

2007—2008, line-up complete, live activities

In 2007, the band finally finds a drummer - Serhiy Dumler. The same year Maria joins the band as a keyboards player to replace Andriy Demyanenko.

Having a complete line-up, the bands starts to actively perform live in 2008, plays at many festivals and other places among Ukraine. It also makes its third recording in the studio, Pid Khmaramy, to prepare itself for the upcoming recording of an ambitions debut album.

2009, debut album, first solo concert

Obiymy Doshchu have finally released their debut album Elehia on August 29, 2009 as a free download on their website.^[7] The album contains 8 songs and represents a certain summary of the band's activities since its formation. It is a conceptual album with a single story. It also has rich string arrangements and contains many contributions from guest musicians.

The band played its first big solo concert in Kyiv on October 22, 2009. This day can also be considered as the official day of violist Olena Nesterovska joining the band as a permanent member.

On December 10, the band released a new 2-song single Svitanok and a video for one of the songs directed by Mykola Kryvonos.^[8]

2017, second album

On November 17 2017 band released their second album "Son" (Ukrainian: Сон, translation: Dream). Album is 72 minutes long and contains 11 tracks. 15 musicians including a string quartet was and 10 sound engineers was involved in recording, which took over 200 hours in 7 different studios across 3 cities. The album has been mixed by British musician and sound producer Bruce Soord, the frontman of the band The Pineapple Thief, who also worked with such grands of progressive music scene as Opeth, Anathema, Riverside, Tesseract and Blackfield. According to authors album is complex, beautiful, poetic rock music with lush string arrangements and progressive rock, neoclassical, neofolk and post-rock elements^[9].

Album was supported by two singles:

• Single "Kryla" (Ukrainian: Крила, translation: Wings) was released on October 5 2017 with interactive web-visualization^[10].
• Single "Razom" (Ukrainian: Разом, translation: Together) was released on November 2 2017 also with interactive web-visualization^[11].

Current members

• Volodymyr Agafonkin — vocals, acoustic guitar (2004—present)
• Oleksiy Katruk — electric guitar (2006—present), keyboards (2005—2006)
• Mykola Kryvonos — bass guitar, flute (2006—present)
• Olena Nesterovska — viola (2009—present)
• Yaroslav Gladilin — drums, percussion (2012—present)
• Yevhen Dubovyk — keyboards (2016—present)

Guest members

• Hanna Kryvonos — backing vocals
• Yana Shakirzhanova — violin

Guest members occasionally perform live with the band and take part in studio recordings.

Former members

• Andriy Demyanenko — keyboards (2006—2007)
• Serhiy Dumler — drums, percussion (2006—2012)
• Maria Kurbatova — keyboards (2007—2016)

Studio albums

• 2009 — Elehia (Елегія)
• 2017 — Son (Сон)

Singles

• 2010 — Svitanok (Світанок)
• 2017 — Kryla (Крила)
• 2017 — Razom (Разом)