During a Voronezh music festival Chernozem, Russian band Splean dedicated a song to the artists that were forced to leave Russia. The video of the performance was published on various social media.
“It’s nice to see so many people that have kept their compassion, empathy, humanity, people that don’t accept cruelty, violence, and murder. During these dark nights, even upbeat songs sound depressing,” are the words with which the band started its set.
They dedicated one of their most famous songs, No way out, to the musicians that had left the country. “To Mashina Vremeni, Aquarium, Tequilajazzz, and everyone else that had to leave the country for different reasons. We hope there’ll come a bright day when they all return. We will play for you here in Voronezh because there’s no other way,” the frontman of the band, Alexander Vasilyev, said from the stage.
Splean’s set was deleted from the official festival live stream video.
Before that, the band did not openly comment on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They touched upon the topic of war in 2014, when they released a music video to the song Let’s be quiet for a bit.
In early July, Fontanka news outlet published a list of “banned musicians”. It includes those who left Russia or spoke out against the war, for example the bands Anacondaz and AloeVera. Anacondaz postponed its tour until next year due to pressure from the authorities, while the frontwoman of AloeVera said that the band had to arrange “secret” concerts instead of official ones.
