ROSTANY

Formation and Style

The band was formed by ex-leader of electronic rock band DALI Viktar Rudenka (vocals, guitar) and his band-mate Anton Rubacky (bass, synths). In 2011 Rudenka invited Rubacky to the DALI to continue experimenting with digital synthesizers using them together with traditional electric instruments. Later they decided to change acoustic drums to an electronic drum set and also incorporate guitar synth together with live sidechains. This drove DALI music too far away from electronic rock. They came up with a concept of creating modern EDM with the maximum of live human touch, contrary to conventional EDM shows where DJs play back previously recorded audio material or groups play live against sequenced pre-recorded parts or loops.

In year 2012 Rudenka and Rubacky disbanded DALI and named the new band "ROSTANY" which means "crossroads" or "change" in Belarusian. The general aim of the ROSTANY was to bring Electro House and Complextro, which is hardly ever performed live, back to the roots of music, where musicians create music by improvising with instruments on the stage. The ROSTANY initially performed live as a 3-piece band engaging Drum Ecstasy ex-drummer Alexander Gorokh, who was later replaced by present drummer Sergei Kuchinsky. However, Rudenka and Rubacky decided that such a 3-piece line-up is insufficient to adequately perform Complextro live and preserve its multitude of parts and effects. After exhausting "shoegazing" concerts the decision was made to incorporate one more keyboardist, who would concentrate on performing effects, sidechained noises and other attributes of electro house and complextro. Thus, Vladimir Ivanov joined the band, making the ROSTANY a 4-piece band, and helped to complete the task set by Rudenka and Rubacky of playing every single note of the complex EDM music styles live only.

Radio, TV and Live Performances

Alright was the debut song by ROSTANY and immediately became popular on Belarusian radio stations. This was followed by Friday 13 whose radio success led to it being nominated Song of the Year 2013 in Belarus. Later on the band was invited by the Belarus First National Channel to contribute to a cultural TV project Forth to the Past aiming to popularize authentic ethnic Belarusian songs by creating contemporary music style remakes. The ROSTANY covered the ethnic Belarusian song "Камарыкi" creating their dubstep hip-hop version titled Daisy Chain, which was later used by First National Channel as the soundtrack for Junior Eurovision Song Contest nominations.

Apart from this TV collaboration the ROSTANY were invited to produce a soundtrack for the sports TV show Force Factor ("Фактор силы") on Belarus-5 TV channel. For this project the band wrote their Electro House symphony Pain that, together with the Force Factor TV show, was a radio success which led to the ROSTANY being listed in the Top 50 chart of ONT National Television at the end of 2014.

ROSTANY, being a Belarusian breakthrough act, were also invited to perform 9 live shows for international hockey fans during the Ice Hockey World Championship 2014 held in Minsk, Belarus.

Activism and Side Projects

The leader of ROSTANY Viktar Rudenka has individually supported various social movements including the European Youth Parliament and Amnesty International. In 2013 together with Lavon Volski, Alaksandr Pamidorau, Nasta Shpakouskaya and other outstanding Belarusian artists Viktar Rudenka took part in The Last Dawn project (Апошнi золак) — a musical show which publicised the problem of the death penalty in Belarus. Viktar Rudenka contributed to the show both as a songwriter and as a performing artist. The musical was filmed and released on CD and DVD.