Formed in 2015, Dymna Lotva has made a name for itself with the groundbreaking third full-length The Land Under The Black Wings: Blood (Зямля Пад Чорнымі Крыламі: Кроў), released in 2023 by Prophecy Productions. Dymna Lotva masterfully blends elements of dark pagan metal with post-doom metal and black metal, creating a unique sonic experience rarely to be heard. Since the release of the album, the band, which has many reasons to carry the torch of rebellion, has been active on many stages across Europe. The duo, composer Jaŭhien Charkasau and vocalist Katsiaryna "Nokt Aeon" Mankevich, had to flee their native Belarus due to political persecution and attempts by the Lukashenko dictatorship to censure and suppress their art. Now, they are based in Poland but continue to sing songs filled with grief and pain. The Belarusians have beautifully and powerfully enhanced their very personal style. Their lyrics are based on true stories from Belarus's history, which is filled with accounts of sorrow gleaned from historical archives or folklore, while new horrors are committed in their country every day. The line-up of Dymna Lotva today consists of Katsiaryna "Nokt Aeon" Mankevich (vocals, traditional flutes, lyrics), Jaŭhien Charkasau (guitars, bass, all music), Mikita Stankevich (guitars, backing vocals), and Wojciech "Bocian" Muchowicz (drums). We met with all four at Prophecy Fest, and here comes what we talked about.

Interview with: Nokt Aeon, Jaŭhien Charkasau, Mikita Stankevich, Bocian
Conducted by: Jerneja, Tomaz
Edited by: Jerneja

Jerneja: Hello, Nokt, Jaŭhien, Mikita and Bocian! It's nice to meet you all, and it's even nicer to meet you for an interview! I read somewhere that Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexandrovna Alexievich, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2015 when Dymna Lotva was created, was the reason for its creation. In what sense?
Nokt: Yes, the initial thing was the news of Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexandrovna Alexievich winning the Nobel Prize in Literature. I remember when I read the book, and it was so terrific. I was going home with a big idea that I needed to make a song for the part of the book with quotes from Lyudmila Ignatenko, the widow of the Chernobyl liquidator, and her account of her husband, Vasily Ivanovich Ignatenko. If you watched the Chernobyl Netflix series, you might remember her as the main character. She's a real person; she's still alive, living in Kyiv, and there are her real words. The same day, I was checking a certain metal forum in case somebody was searching for musicians. I read that Jaŭhien is searching for a vocalist for his post-metal project, and I wrote to him that maybe I could help. I said I knew almost everybody and could bring him the vocalist he wanted. He said that I was OK and that he didn't need another vocalist. So let's do it. I told him about the idea I had and that we needed to make that song. I asked him to send me some material, and he did it, and one of the songs fit. So, for our first single, "Самотны чалавечы голас", I just read that monologue and music explained. So, officially, our birthday is on 8 October 2015.

Jerneja: Does Svetlana know that she was the inspiration for your band? Have you ever met her?
Nokt: I don't know. We tried to connect with her, but we couldn't. She doesn't live in Belarus and doesn't answer via Facebook, but we contacted her agent for the author rights to use Svetlana's text for a song. So, we have rights if it's not commercial. I think we are still not a commercial band because selling 500 copies of the album is not really commercial.

Jerneja: However, wasn't your sophomore album, Палын (Wormwood), the one inspired and directly related to the Chernobyl disaster?
Nokt: Yeah, our second album is fully based on Svetlana's book Chernobyl Prayer, a collection of real people's stories and monologues. We were just going through this book and did the lyrics for the album.

Tomaz: You are now playing for the second time on Prophecy Fest. You did it last year, but you had some problems, namely, Jaŭhien couldn't come. So, how do you feel being here again, and what do you expect from the show?
Nokt: Yes, our leader and founder, Jaŭhien, couldn't come last year. We are absolutely excited to be here again.
Bocian: It's very cool. I was watching the first show, Perchta, our friends from Austria. They were the first band to play, and so many people came to see them. I think that almost everybody came to the first show. At most other festivals, nobody cares about the first band, and bands are playing almost for themselves. It doesn't happen here; this is a special festival, at least for me. The place is fucking amazing. It's a bit cold inside, but I know that tomorrow, when I play, also because I'm a drummer, I'll be wet, a waterman. I'm a bit nervous because I saw how many people came to the first band... It's cool for us, cool for me, and thank you, Dymna Lotva. Last year, I played for the first time with these guys as a session drummer, but in January, Nokt called me and asked me if I would like to stay with them as a permanent member.
Nokt: Bocian always had around five bands, and we were just waiting for one of his bands to end. One day, I was reading posts on Facebook and noticed that one of his bands just ended because of some problems. It was posted, like, 30 minutes ago, and I thought that maybe he is free now. Now, we have the best drummer in the world.
Bocian: I've been a part of Dymna Lotva for a year, and these are my friends. I love them. Tomorrow, after the concert, we will have a big celebration, with many drinks, haha.

Tomaz: You moved from Belarus to Poland...
Nokt: Honestly, we moved from Ukraine to Poland in 2022, but before that, yes, we moved from Belarus to Ukraine. We travel a lot.

Tomaz: You probably have better conditions to work on music and establish connections now...
Nokt: And we don't need visas anymore to play at festivals in the European Union. We have been waiting for documents for a long time, but now I don't have or need a passport. We have Polish documents now, and it seems to be working.
Mikita: It works, but sometimes you still can have some problems at the borders. Now, we can't move to Belarus at all. If we did, we would be sent to jail.

Jerneja: Are you considered traitors in Belarus?
Nokt: He's a terrorist (points to Jaŭhien), I'm an extremist, and so on. You know, in Belarus, one weird guy in charge of everything doesn't like other people. Fucking Lukashenko!

Tomaz: Yes, we know the story. We also published an interview with the Belarusian band Irdorath, who were in jail for protesting (you can check it out over HERE).
Nokt: Oh, Irdorath, they are our friends. They are finally free. We skipped away less than a month before they went to jail.

Tomaz: Now I want to ask you about your latest album, The Land Under The Black Wings: Blood. It's your first album released via Prophecy Productions, and I wonder how are you satisfied with it a year after its release?
Nokt: We have a great artbook, I love it. I still can't return to writing anything, even any posts, because I read so much text for the art book. I just post some photos here and there. I'm so tired of it. We are working on another album, by the way.

Jerneja: Now that you live in Poland, you will probably make and release a new album sooner. Namely, six years have passed between your last two albums.
Nokt: We already recorded some music for our fourth album, but I've been writing lyrics for far too long. It's my fault.
Mikita: That's because Nokt analyses a lot of information when writing lyrics. For example, for our next album - which I believe we will release - haha, Nokt has read a lot of scientific literature. I know it's difficult to read certain stuff if you're not a specialist in that.
Nokt: Ok, well, not everything is that difficult. Now, I'm reading a lot of literature about Belarus and astronomy. Interesting things.

Tomaz: What about your latest album, The Land Under The Black Wings: Blood, inspiration and lyrics?
Nokt: It's based on real stories. Most of the stories are from the Second World War, so I had to read many books about those times. Ales Adamovich, a writer who was also a teacher of Belarusian literature at Moscow State University, collected stories of real people, mostly about women and children during the occupation of Germans during World War II. There are also stories about my grandmother, who faced World War II in Belarus as a teenager. There's some material taken from the archives. So, most of the lyrics are about real stories. There's also one song about the current situation in Belarus called "To Freedom". I wrote this one after our guest vocalist was in jail for nine days. After we recorded the song, he went to jail for three years but escaped. One song is also about the original Belarus spell to stop the bleeding.

Jerneja: There is also this song, "Пекла (Hell)", on your latest album, where the baby is crying and the mother is trying to calm him down. Was it a cry of a real baby?
Nokt: It's a real recording that happened eight years ago. We haven't tortured the baby, haha. I took her into my arms, and she started crying, not screaming, just crying, and I tried to stop her. She heard my recorded harsh vocals because our sound engineer didn't turn it off. I didn't expect that she'd be afraid of my voice. Maybe she thought that I was a demon. We recorded it, and I explained to her that I was not a demon, that the voice was mine. Now, she's not afraid of demons anymore, but she's afraid of me, haha.

Jerneja: Well, I find it a unique and interesting intro to a song...
Nokt: Yeah, this song is based on a real and very sad story. It's inspired by the Belarusian folk song "I Will Sell Some Cucumbers". I read the story, which happened during World War II - about a mother and her five-year-old daughter. This little girl and her mother were walking through the village, and they met a Nazi. They asked him not to kill them, and the little girl said, "uncle please don't kill us. I'll sing you a song". She sang the song, and he killed her.

Tomaz: This year, you released a new single, "Жыві! (Live!)". The song was inspired by a militaristic group from Belarus that helps Ukraine. What can you tell me about it?
Nokt: These Belarus volunteers are our best people. We know some of them, quite some of them already died, some of them are in captivity, and some of them are still fighting. We need to support the Kastuś Kalinoŭski Regiment. They want to help Ukraine, but after the Ukraine's victory, they want to free Belarus from this fucking dictator regime. I hope that we will be with them and that we will make Belarus a free country. Why Alexander Lukashenko is still a dictator? It's because Putin helps him. Putin sends him a lot of money and helps him with the military. And this is why our protests were stopped. There were too many weapons and too much money involved.
Mikita: Without Russian people, Lukashenko can do literally nothing. When these Russian guys got involved in protests in 2020, the protests were put to an end. Protesters were without any weapons at all, and against us were people from Belarus and Russia who had a lot of weapons. We couldn't do anything against them. Now, the only way to help Belarus is to make Ukraine win first. Only after that, we can do something.

Jerneja: Unfortunately, it doesn't look like this war will end any time soon, if ever...
Nokt: Somebody should kill Putin, but Putin is not alone.
Mikita: Yes, but you can't do it if you're not a warrior or a snipper. I don't think that we, normal people, can do something. We don't have any weapons, and against us, there will be professional warriors. What can you do with your bare hands?

Jerneja: I wonder if world politics (with all its too many departments and organizations) is doing anything in this direction at all...
Bocian: That's my question as well. Where is fucking Europe? They are always afraid of Putin. Just because this fucking guy is a crazy man, he's insane.

Tomaz: OK, let's talk about music again. Dymna Lotva has signed with Prophecy Productions, and somehow, you stepped out of the underground and reached more people with your music...
Nokt: We have 1000 monthly listeners, and this is definitely not mainstream.
Jaŭhien: Prophecy Productions has a good system. We now have two or three managers who do a lot of work for us. That's cool.
Mikita: From my perspective, Prophecy does very good productions. You can have art books and all that stuff. I know that not many people are listening to music from the discs right now, and the discs are more like some kind of souvenir in these times. The people at Prophecy Productions do great stuff, especially if you are still buying discs because it's not just a simple thing. They do things that are very good for your collection. The vinyl and CDs released by Prophecy are very beautiful. It can be interesting for people.

Jerneja: You write all of the titles and lyrics in Cyrillic. Don't you think you could reach more people if you wrote in Latin script and English language, especially since Dymna Lotva wants to make people aware of what is happening in her territory and maybe even engage them to take action?
Bocian: Because it's our true self. I'm the only one from Poland; the rest of the band is from Belarus. That's why. It's unique.
Jaŭhien: We used Cyrillic because in Belarus, we use Cyrillic. I know we could reach more people if we wrote in Latin font. Our next album will be in Latin - actually, it'll be Belarus Latin with English translations.

Tomaz: You have made some shocking but enjoyable for watching videos for the tracks from your last album. How was shooting them, and who made the scenarios?
Mikita: Nokt could tell you more about that because she was behind the order of the video and scenario. Sometimes, the rest of us can have some brainstorming sessions to help Nokt with the scenario, but we guys were mostly behind some technical stuff.
Nokt: Our brainstorms were for future videos. I enjoy creating videos so much, and we definitely need more money to create more videos. That's my favourite part.

Tomaz: What can people expect from Dymna Lotva playing live?
Nokt: A Lot of emotions.
Bocian: Yes, a lot of emotions. I play with them for only one year, and at every concert, Nokt and the guys are fucking amazing. You will see us tomorrow, and we will show you.
Nokt: I can call our show an emotional exhibitionism. If you want to drink beer and cry, please come to our show, haha. After the concert, you can drink even more beer with us.

Tomaz: Before you mentioned that you are working on a new album. Will it be a continuation and another chapter of The Land Under The Black Wings, or something completely new?
Nokt: A new chapter of The Land Under The Black Wings will come later. We need to wait until something will change in Belarus. We are now making an album about our current emotions and our experiences. It's about our experience with emigration and similar stuff. Like always there will also be stuff from history. 
Bocian: Musically speaking it'll also be a bit different. Jaŭhien sent me the songs and I found them a little different if compared to previous albums. He made me happy. It'll be a surprise. It's still a secret but I guess that you'll be surprised.

Tomaz: For me, it's difficult to categorize the music of Dymna Lotva. The only band that comes to mind is Arkona from Russia...
Nokt: We are similar to Perchta in style. But please don't mention Arkona, because as far as I remember they don't say anything about war. They are not the only band with such female vocals and folk elements, and definitely, they are not the best.
Mikita: I think that it's impossible to separate music from politics, because politics is a thing that determines what kind of life you will live, and music is a part of your life, so you can't split it.
Nokt: Russians often write to me that I should not talk about politics, that I am a musician and that I should keep quiet about these things. You guys burned down my house and I'm supposed to be quiet? It's not about politics, you literally set my house on fire.

Jerneja: Well, Slovenia was once a part of Yugoslavia, and there was a special place (among others) for the citizens who "couldn't keep quiet" or had "suspicious" friends - Goli Otok (Barren Island - In 1949, the entire island was officially made into a high-security, top secret prison and labour camp run by the authorities of the People's Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, together with the nearby Sveti Grgur island, which held a similar camp for female prisoners)... OK, which bands/musicians were your inspiration?
Nokt: Lisa Gerrard from Dead Can Dance and Aaron Stainthorpe of My Dying Bride. We played together with them last year, and it was unbelievable. My heart is broken.
Bocian: Mostly black metal bands. Every black metal is for me.
Jaŭhien: Arcturus, Leprous, Mastodon and some other interesting bands.
Mikita: For me, it'll be Deathspell Omega, Bethlehem, Alcest and that kind of stuff. You know, I listen to a lot of different styles, and that list could be without an ending.

Tomaz: Before we end this interview, I must ask you about your plans, besides releasing a new album, of course...
Bocian: To play as many concerts as possible. The fun thing is that almost every our next planned concert is on the birthdate of a band member. We play, and we have fun after that.
Nokt: We expect some presents from the crowd, haha. A lot of gifts, yes, teddy bears and such stuff.
Bocian: The best gift for us is when promoters invite us to play at their festivals. We can play anywhere, anytime, so please write to us and book us. That is our wish.
Jerneja: Is there something else you would like to communicate to our readers and/or your fans?
Nokt: Slava Ukraini, Zyvie Belarus!
Bocian: Please come to our concerts and drink beer with us after the concert. Thank you for the interview.
Mikita: Listen to good music.
Jaŭhien: I don't know what else to say. Thank you for interviewing us.

Live photos by Tomaz

Dymna Lotva links: Facebook, Instagram, Bandcamp, Prophecy Productions