The time has come, at last

New sides of Volodymyr Ivasiuk’s talent were unexpectedly revealed 30 years after his departure for eternity. It turned out he had been an outstanding photo artist who had been able not only to capture a moment in a professional way, but also to see it in time. “Who knows, perhaps we would be as proud of his photographs as we are of the songs, if only fate allowed him some more time,” says Liubomyr Krysa, the composer’s friend and the compiler of the album which includes memories of Ivasiuk and his photographs of highly personal style.

The first presentation of the album Echoes of Your Steps was held in Chernivtsi; it was released very recently through the efforts of Krysa and Ivasiuk’s sisters with the assistance of the Front for Change party and Lviv region charities. Even on a weekday, the spacious organ hall was filled to the brim. The presentation was attended by relatives, friends and fans of Ivasiuk, and the audience included many young people, born many years after the debut of his songs.

Krysa recalls: “The idea of this publication, which would reveal an unknown side of Ivasiuk’s talent, emerged in my mind soon after his tragic death, and I wanted to do it then, but his dad Mykhailo Ivasiuk had always restrained me, saying ‘The time has not come yet.’ The work on it took almost two years, but it was surprisingly easy to do. I felt like I was tra-velling back into the years we had spent together, and when some difficulties had appeared, I went to his grave, sought counsel and chatted with him.”

The album includes hundreds of photographs (many of which had been shot by Ivasiuk himself during his short lifetime) and over four dozen previously unpublished memories of the composer by his living friends and colleagues as well as those of them who had already left this world. They reveal many previously unknown facts about his life and works.

“It is still barely known, for example, that the popular song’s title Stars on the Snow originally read

Candles on the Snow,” says Volodymyr Vozniuk, the author of the song’s lyrics; the title of the entire album Echoes of Your Steps has been taken from this song, too. “The censors of the time forced us to replace candles with stars, so as to remove even a hint of the Church and God’s Providence topics from our work.”

A member of the Prosvita Society’s regional chapter Tamara Minchenko shares her impressions: “The album is interesting both for specialists and for all those who care about Ivasiuk’s works. We look forward to its sequel, and would be also very delighted with a film about Ivasiuk, as it would be very helpful when teaching music at school.”