Biography

Ummagma – a Canadian-Ukrainian duo comprised of Alexander Kretov and Shauna McLarnon – deliver titillating and grounding "easy positive music" with richly layered landscapes, pulsating sound and mesmerizing vocals. Ummagma’s eclectic yet harmonious potpourri of alt pop, dreampop, post-rock, post-punk, ambient/ethereal, space rock and progressive/art rock serves up a mixture of sublime resonance, beats and rhythm to create a virtual dream pop rock haven. McLarnon’s delicate airy gossamer-like vocals often draw comparisons to Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins fame with glimmers of Stereolab, The Sundays, Curve and Slowdive. Kretov's spellbinding potion of guitar, vocals, synths, beats, programming, effects create an impeccable Floydish Fripp-laced soundscape to help the listener take flight.
Alexx handles composition, all instruments, arrangement and vocals, as well as recording, mixing, mastering and video production, while Shauna McLarnon deals with vocals, composition, lyrics and band management. For Alexx, making music began in childhood and recording began with a double-deck recorder in what was now a young and free post-Soviet Ukraine. Shauna’s experience in creating music began with solo compositions while studying in Russia's Siberia and Moscow and living in northern Canada. Sasha is originally from Kremenets, a town in western Ukraine, and Shauna is from Whitehorse, Yukon in northern Canada. She is apparently addicted to Russia and Ukraine, so she has lived there for about 12 years.
Ummagma began as an affair with love and sound in Moscow back in 2003, when Alexx and Shauna were both living at the time. They met at an acoustic guitar concert and fell into a relationship, which developed into a marriage and the musical partnership we know today as Ummagma. Until then, Shauna was mainly singing acapella and working with various Moscow musicians, while Alexx was a solo guitarist experimenting with home recording. After beginning to make music together, they set up their own home studio, which they brought with them to Kiev, moving there at the peak of the Orange Revolution in 2004. With every move (Moscow-Kiev-western Ukraine-Yukon-western Ukraine), they continued to hone their musical and recording skills, upgrade their studio and record music. Shauna and Alexx currently live in Ternopil (western Ukraine) with their daughter Nika and work in their recording studio, where Alexx also records and produces other artists’ work.
In mid-July, Ummagma independently released 2 full-length LPs ("Ummagma" and "Antigravity") on Bandcamp at http://ummagma.bandcamp.com. Despite the fact that Ummagma’s music encompasses several music genres, there persists a common remarkable theme, elevating and stirring effect. Apart from the above groups, Ummagma is often likened to Blonde Redhead, Peter Gabriel, AIR, Sigur Ros, Arcade Fire, Pink Floyd, Michael Brook, Lush, Mercury Rev, Talk Talk, Snow Patrol, Exitmusic, Ultravox, Bowery Electric and M83, but the listener will find an unmistakable sound truly unique to Ummagma.
The 2 debut albums have received a good press coverage and radio airplay in 30+ countries. Ummagma has ranked in the TOP-40 Scottish New Music Charts since August and has climbed as high as #6 there. Ummagma was #2 in New York’s Indie Darkroom Radio charts throughout July and August, and jumped to #1 for September, October and November. Ummagma has been in Forkster “Rocks It Out” Top-15 ratings for 21 weeks now and is currently ranked #1. Ummagma also ranked high in the Twitter Music Charts in late August and early September and currently ranks #1 on Reverbnation among Indie Alternative Bands in Ukraine. Ummagma was named Band of the Week on the Indie Bands Blog for September 9-15 and ranked fourth in the TOP-10 Indie Bands for September 2012, according to this publication. Ummagma was nominated for CBC Radio Canada’s “Rookie of the Year” Bucky Award and was featured in the November issue of Rolling Stone Russia.