VARP
VARP is a group of musicians that explore the ancient churches of Gotland. Through immersion in meditative states of musical improvisation, the spaces speak through them, creating sensual portraits and new stories.
The mission of VARP is simple: to explore and experiment with the acoustic potential of Gotland's medieval churches through improvised music. Inspired partly by the deep listening concept advocated by Pauline Oliveros, the group focuses on creating improvised and experimental music that responds to and interacts with the qualities of these special spaces. They blend elements of experimental contemporary, classical music and traditional Swedish and Ukrainian music. Their first album on Right Brain Records is called Deal With Bergman.
VARP is Polina Pohozha (piano, viola da gamba, voice), Nata Popova (flute, drums) and Richard Hellgren (viola, piano). The group was formed through the serendipitous meeting of three individuals with diverse backgrounds in music. Polina and Nataliia escaped the war in Ukraine and landed on a small island in the Baltic Sea, the Swedish island of Gotland, where Richard lived. They met in a concert in the cathedral of Visby.
Hear Deal With Bergman on Bandcamp.
In Ukraine churches are often orthodox and instruments are not allowed. Polina and Nata became fascinated with the abundance of medieval churches on the island, there are 92 of them. Richard was also fascinated with these buildings and also the acoustical properties of these spaces and how they could be recorded.
One day they decided to just go to a church and pick up their instruments and recording equipment without any preparation and just improvise freely. That turned into their first album. Polina saw an inscription on the entrance to this church that said ”Frid ware inom dina murar” let there be peace inside your walls. They decided do more recording and do more musical investigations in a similar way in more churches.
The trio has since visited special places like art exhibitions, as well as the Bergman Estate on Fårö. That gave them the name of their first Right Brain Records album.
