Poster artwork by Emily Doyle, inspired by Pan Kotski: a Ukrainian folk tale about a cat abandoned in the forest by his master, who then ends up inadvertently striking fear into the animals that live there.
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GANNA + Arcai
GANNA + Arcai
Wednesday 6 May 2026
Centrala, Birmingham
This is a pretty special booking for Kikimora - we're teaming up with Centrala for a rare chance to welcome acclaimed Ukrainian composer & performer GANNA to Birmingham!
Expect Ukrainian folk songs reimagined through electronic textures, improvisation and contemporary songwriting. Her repertoire draws from research trips across Ukraine, where she collected songs and stories from elders in the Carpathians and villages near Kyiv and Poltava. On stage, those field-gathered fragments become something electric - tradition carried forward as wildly magnetic performances.
We're also thrilled to announce Arcai, the electronic project of Kai Chareunsy as support, with his spellbinding fusion of live drums, khaen (traditional Laotian mouth organ) and field recordings from the dense jungles and busy towns of Laos.
WHATS ON
GANNA - live electronic performance
1A rare opportunity to see GANNA, the acclaimed Ukrainian singer-composer, live in the UK. Using loops, effects, samples and synth, GANNA builds vast, living soundscapes in real time, blending the raw authenticity of Ukrainian village singing with modern composition, improvisation and electronic texture.
The result is unearthly yet deeply human. Her repertoire draws from research trips across Ukraine, where she collected songs and stories from elders in the Carpathians and villages near Kyiv and Poltava. On stage, those field-gathered fragments become something electric - tradition carried forward as wildly magnetic performances.
"The levels of talent – even wizardry – musicological, composition & vocal, which run through her and in so many different ways are extraordinary"
- London Jazz News
""I was completely captivated by the emotional intelligence of his music"
- Jasmin Kent Rodgman
“Kai’s expressive playing is a highlight of the record”
- The Quietus
Arcai - live electronic performance
Kai Chareunsy is a drummer, composer, and music facilitator based in Birmingham. He has recently been exploring his identity as a dual heritage Lao-British person through composition.
Part of this exploration has involved learning to play and compose with a bamboo mouth organ called the Khaen, the national instrument of Laos. There is an old saying: ‘People living in houses on stilts, eating sticky rice, and playing Khaen can only be Laotian or their brothers’.
All the money from his debut EP 'Naak Dam Naak Don' is donated to a charity who clear unexploded bombs from the ground in Laos left over from the Vietnam War: https://restorationlaos.org/donate
GALLERY
photos by Hayley Salter
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