On Songs of Truth, Kytasty brings expressive clarity and vibrancy to the centuries-old kobzar repertoire through skillfully retold historical epics, timeless philosophical songs, biting satire, and joyful dance tunes. The album illuminates the legacy of the kobzari—blind bards who traveled the Ukrainian countryside until the early 20th century, sharing news and history through sung storytelling accompanied on the bandura, a plucked-string instrument that has become a symbol of Ukrainian identity and culture.

As a performer, recording artist, composer, and band leader, Kytasty has redefined the possibilities of the bandura. Serving as the musical director of the New York Bandura Ensemble, he also founded and curated ten years of Bandura Downtown, an innovative music series based in New York’s East Village that provided a home for creative explorations of traditional and contemporary sounds and themes. He has performed and recorded as a soloist, with the ensemble Paris to Kyiv, and in his own Experimental Bandura Trio, bringing his passion and artistry to stages and studios worldwide alongside musical innovators like John Zorn and Derek Bailey, as well as such artists as Chinese pipa player Wu Man, klezmer revivalist Michael Alpert, and others.

“It was my good fortune to be born into a family and community of these players, who had come to Detroit as displaced persons in 1949,” Kytasty writes. “Among the bandurists I grew up with, performing songs from the kobzar repertoire was a mark of prestige and conveyed a sense of connection to an ancient tradition. I was captivated by this music and went on to explore the tradition documented a century ago and to seek out its echoes in later recordings and the work of living players.”

Songs of Truth is the second release in our Sound Communities recording series, a collaboration between the Centre for Sound Communities at Cape Breton University and Smithsonian Folkways that highlights artists who tell stories of the lands, waters, and peoples of Turtle Island.