An article «Electro opera or music firework», dedicated to music project LAFESTA was presented in October edition of «Natali» magazine (2013)

«Music is a unique mankind language», claimed American poet Henry Longfellow. Probably that is why Ukrainian group LAFESTA is popular not only in our country, but all over the world.

Fans of this genre will be able to assess musicians’ skills on the 30th of October, visiting enormous Electro Opera concert. LAFESTA will realize an ultimate dream of great number of musicians; it will perform accompanied by symphony orchestra.

The whole story started in 2008. At that time Igor Kuksenko, director-documentarian from Kiev and inspiratory of youth art-project «Kvartal» and his team were taking part in city improvements and creating interesting social projects: youth discussion club, crisis hotline, etc. «If a person tries to be careful and not to run risks, he will never present something ingenious to the world» – believed Igor.

That year he met jazz saxophonist Nikolay Maystruk and suggested him to start cooperation in creating a new music project. And as a result a new duet, consisting of DJ and saxophone, appeared… But still vocal was needed. Just in several weeks charming lady Olga Rossi visited their concert. As it turned out, Olga won international opera vocal contests several times and performed in concert-halls all over the Europe. And it is Italy that presented her a sounding pseudonym: her surname should sound in that way on Italian concerts under the contract terms.

Name «LAFESTA» was chosen not by chance, as participants wanted to carry positive emotions to people. Translated from Spanish «lafesta» means «holiday», but if one expands an abbreviation, the name means «Lounge and Funk Electro STyle Attune» – assonance of lounge, funk and electro. The union of these styles was decided to be a spice of the project. And so Electro Opera arose by virtue of combination of unique opera vocal and modern music. First album of the group named «Coral Reef» was recorded in this style accompanied by symphony orchestra.

Today LAFESTA history comprises hundreds of road tours in Ukraine and abroad, each of them is memorable in its unique way. For instance, recently we had a funny story in Batumi. «Owner of one of the restaurants in Kutaisi came to us after the concert and offered to perform… by barter – visit his wine cellar famous all over Georgia after the concert and as a remuneration choose the best wine. Despite it was a colorful welcome Georgian offer, we refused, as we had an early flight and important concert in Kiev», - remembered artist with a smile.

LAFESTA made first music clip in the center of Spanish Valencia in a tremendous park «La ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias – «Art and science city». Electro Opera was assonant with the architecture of «The city of the future». «This fact becomes an incentive for us to develop this direction, as we see that Europe is interested in it». At that time few people knew about us (particularly in Spain). Therefore, it is especially pleasant that attention was paid not to a popular brand, but to music namely. When video clip came out, many friends asked who painted such futuristic decorations for our clip, as it was hard to believe that such locations really existed.

LAFESTA is one of the most demanded Ukrainian music projects today, which has already given more than 800 concerts. And there is no doubt that LAFESTA ingredients for success include not only individual style, gift, but a special internal atmosphere in the team. And it is impossible not to feel it, as their music speaks on this language.