Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Vocals by Anastasia Kareva, flute by Fraser Fifield, pishik by @antplat Anton Platonov, check out his YouTube channel and store here, where he makes a variety of instruments including traditional reeds like the Russian zhaleika, pishik, and even ancient aulos: youtube.com/@antplat?si=DdC-5Ikw96vysf8Xhttps://www.facebook.com/antplat.instruments The Epic Slavic series is a project where the sounds of the current, living traditions of the Slavic peoples are used as a framing device to explore themes relating to the mythology, folklore and history of the Slavs. These are not historical recreations nor "epic music" in the cinematic soundtrack sense, but a project of ethnomusicological research and performance that showcases the epic narrative repertoire of the Slavs through their living musical traditions.
Based on the recording by Yegor Strelnikov: youtu.be/gCIk-CDb6XE?si=-0PZcZimGwyIbjf8
To what degree this song is Strelnikov's original composition or traditional, I was unable to ascertain; I was able to find an online repository of traditional Russian ballads containing part of the melody heard here, but it may be that the rest is his, or also traditional.
This is a traditional bylina; byline are descended from the repertoire of East Slavic epic poetry, delivered sung-recited by the minstrels of East Slavic medieval culture, and are a shared cultural heritage of Eastern Slavs such as Ukrainians, Russians and Belarusians, with figures like Ilya Muromets being prominent in all those cultures, often a point of heated contention due to the current political climate where some of the groups engage in historical revisionism to claim the tradition belongs only to them, was stolen by the other, you know the drill if you know anything about history and politics. This specific song and text are Russian, but tales of Muromets can also be found across Ukrainian and other East Slavic speaking spheres.
Byline were historically performed either with the gusli or acapella, but more recent performances like Strelnikov's include additional instruments like the flute. In this case, we went with a traditional ensemble of gusli, flute, and pishik, a traditional reed instrument of pre-Westernisation Russian that was one of the dominant folk instruments before the arrival of the accordion, balalaika, and more modern instruments.
Byline focus on the heroic deeds and actions of folk heroes, in this case, Ilya Muromets, a bogatyr, which is a knight-errand style stock character in the epic corpus of East Slavic legends. Given superhuman strength by Svyatogor, Ilya travels the vast lands of the Kyivan Rus on heroic adventures, and is characterised in the epics as kind, if not always the brightest.
Lyrics are available in the pinned comment as they were too long for YouTube's description word limit.
Vocals by Anastasia Kareva, flute by Fraser Fifield, pishik by @antplat Anton Platonov, check out his YouTube channel and store here, where he makes a variety of instruments including traditional reeds like the Russian zhaleika, pishik, and even ancient aulos: youtube.com/@antplat?si=DdC-5Ikw96vysf8Xhttps://www.facebook.com/antplat.instruments The Epic Slavic series is a project where the sounds of the current, living traditions of the Slavic peoples are used as a framing device to explore themes relating to the mythology, folklore and history of the Slavs. These are not historical recreations nor "epic music" in the cinematic soundtrack sense, but a project of ethnomusicological research and performance that showcases the epic narrative repertoire of the Slavs through their living musical traditions.
Based on the recording by Yegor Strelnikov: youtu.be/gCIk-CDb6XE?si=-0PZcZimGwyIbjf8
To what degree this song is Strelnikov's original composition or traditional, I was unable to ascertain; I was able to find an online repository of traditional Russian ballads containing part of the melody heard here, but it may be that the rest is his, or also traditional.
This is a traditional bylina; byline are descended from the repertoire of East Slavic epic poetry, delivered sung-recited by the minstrels of East Slavic medieval culture, and are a shared cultural heritage of Eastern Slavs such as Ukrainians, Russians and Belarusians, with figures like Ilya Muromets being prominent in all those cultures, often a point of heated contention due to the current political climate where some of the groups engage in historical revisionism to claim the tradition belongs only to them, was stolen by the other, you know the drill if you know anything about history and politics. This specific song and text are Russian, but tales of Muromets can also be found across Ukrainian and other East Slavic speaking spheres.
Byline were historically performed either with the gusli or acapella, but more recent performances like Strelnikov's include additional instruments like the flute. In this case, we went with a traditional ensemble of gusli, flute, and pishik, a traditional reed instrument of pre-Westernisation Russian that was one of the dominant folk instruments before the arrival of the accordion, balalaika, and more modern instruments.
Byline focus on the heroic deeds and actions of folk heroes, in this case, Ilya Muromets, a bogatyr, which is a knight-errand style stock character in the epic corpus of East Slavic legends. Given superhuman strength by Svyatogor, Ilya travels the vast lands of the Kyivan Rus on heroic adventures, and is characterised in the epics as kind, if not always the brightest.
Lyrics are available in the pinned comment as they were too long for YouTube's description word limit.
