SOYUZ

СОЮЗ (SOYUZ) is a music project from Minsk, Belarus, founded by multi-instrumentalists Alex Chumak and Mikita Arlou. The project functions as an author's collective, in which Chumak plays the role of composer, arranger and vocalist, while other members participate in instrumentation and production. After 2022, the group moved to Warsaw, where its line-up was supplemented by other musicians.

The first albums Ето всё совсем не то (2018) and II (2019) are inspired by jazz-oriented pop and non-English sung music. The follow-up album Force of the Wind, released in 2022, develops this approach and draws on the influences of Latin American music, especially Brazilian popular music of the 70s, combined with contemporary production.

The work of the project is characterized by the interweaving of jazz, pop, folk and other styles, with arrangement work and the use of multiple languages ​​playing an important role. The project functions both in a studio form guided by the author's vision and as a concert formation that further develops the material through collective interpretation and improvisation.

In 2024, the project released the album Krok, which follows on from the previous discography and was created partly outside of Belarus following the move of the members abroad.