The new recording by Winnipeg-based Alexis Kochan and her ensemble Paris to Kyiv is titled 'Prairie Nights and Peacock Feathers'. It was officially released on October 5, 2000 with a concert at Winnipeg's Pantages Playhouse Theatre.

This CD draws its material from the deepest layers of Ukrainian musical tradition and filters it through the sensibility of Kochan's musical collaborators: premier bandura player Julian Kytasty, jazz improviser and singer-songwriter Richard Moody, British Iles traditional player Martin Colledge, and Yugoslavian contrabassist Nenad Zdjelar.

Soundscapes range from spare two-part vocal harmonies to lush ensemble arrangements developed during a two-week residency last summer at the St. Norbert Arts Centre. Engineered by Danny Schur, with design and original artwork by Ron Sawchuk, the CD includes a booklet of English translations of the lyrics by the award-winning team of Virlana Tkacz and Wanda Phipps.

Alexis Kochan has been exploring the creative possibilities that are found at the interfaces where traditional music meets the modern world and where the global meets the culturally specific. This exploration has led to three previous critically acclaimed recordings, 'Czarivna', 'Paris to Kiev', and 'Variances'. Combining pre-Christian ritual songs, fragments of medieval chant and modern influences, it is timeless music, spanning the centuries, evoking distant places.

For further information contact Olesia Records in Canada by phone or fax at 204.338.3385