Ukrainian folk-rock of the cities

Mandry were officially formed in 1997 by the already well known singer/songwriter Serhiy "Foma" Fomenko, who had made a name for himself in the Kyiv underground music scene for his creative work with the group Den Vmiraye Rano (Day Dies Early).
At first they performed as a three-piece acoustic band, but after a few band member change-overs a new sound was created which made Mandry the spearheads of what is now known as "folk music of the cities". They performed their first concert with this unique sound on 24th December 1997.

In contemporary Ukrainian youth culture the group hold an original musical niche. Owing to the stylish diversity of their music and their unique combination of traditional Ukrainian folk music with modern rhythms, elements of city romance and French chansons with a good dose of reggae, blues, rock and punk, they manage to captivate a varied audience representing all age groups. The music of MANDRY, in spite of being a combination of various genres, is well crafted and artistically unique. Their songs are full of imagery and have emotionally charged melodic patterns making poetic lyrics understandable to people from all walks of life. MANDRY's repertoire is still growing, expanding not only due to new songs being written by the band members, but also by giving traditional folk songs a new interpretation.

In October 1997 accordion player Leonid Bieley appeared on the scene and his contribution to Foma's songs enriched the melodies, as did a change in percussionist. Salman joined the contingent of "mandryvnyky" (wanderers) with a complete set of percussion instruments. At this time Mandry possibly were the only Ukrainian group with a percussionist.
In the same month the new line-up played a concert, but it wasn't a very successful performance, and as they were dissatisfied doubts arose as to whether the band should split up. The director of Asteroid records came to the band's rescue and offered them their first contract and with his help the group continued.

The last alteration in the group's line-up occurred when MANDRY invited drummer Andriy Zanko and Serhiy "Chizh" Chehodayev, who replaced Oleksandr Kokhanivskiy on bass, to join the band. As a result the sound of the band changed quite radically. Their music was enriched with contemporary rhythms and started to include French melodic influences.

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