Revolts, protest and music have been an explosive mixture for ages. Sounds and lyrics connect people and awaken the feeling of togetherness, and that across borders. DJ Yuriy Gurzhy – initiator of the series “Russendisko” and “Born in UA” – will be spinning for democracy in the foyer of the Humboldt Forum this weekend. Together with the dancing audience, the Ukrainian-born DJ will embark on a journey through protest and revolutionary songs from different countries and eras.
Born in Ukraine, he came to Berlin with his family at the age of 20. He is a musician, DJ, producer and radio host. Together with the writer Wladimir Kaminer, he initiated the legendary party series Russendisko and released compilations including “Russendisko Hits” and “Ukraine Do America”. Already “Shtetl Superstars” (2006) dealt with contemporary Jewish sounds from all over the world.
Yuriy is also active as a singer and guitarist with the Emigrantski ragamuffin collective RotFront.
In 2016-17 he hosted the Born In UA party series dedicated to Ukrainian music and released the compilation “Borsh Division – Future Sound Of Ukraine” (Trikont).
At Studio R // Gorki Theater Berlin, together with Daniel Kahn and Marina Frenk, he founded The Disorientalists, a trio that narrates the life of the mysterious Jewish-Azerbaijani German-language writer Essad Bey in a musical-theatrical performance.
During the pandemic, Yuriy streamed the regular DJ sets from the Panda Theater in Berlin, as well as released the CD “Bleib zu Hause, Mama!” with Wladimir Kaminer and their joint band Kaminer & the Antikörpers. With irony and wit, Kaminer and Gurzhy process their experiences and observations in times of Corona in their “Pandemic Diary.”
Yuriy Gurzhy recorded his last two albums in Ukraine. In 2020 appeared “The New Donbass Symphony”, a song cycle developed in the five cities of the Ukrainian Donbass together with the students living there, and “Fokstroty” (2021), 10 songs to the texts of Ukrainian authors from the time of the Executed Renaissance, which Gurzhy recorded and recorded together with Serhij Zhadan.
His first book “Richard Wagner and the Klezmer Band – In Search of the New Jewish Sound in Germany” was published in January 2022. Since February, Gurzhy has been writing a war diary for the Berlin newspaper “Der Tagesspiegel”.