DIVA’s journey through 100 thousand Chuvash songs
DIVA Ethno Future Sound is an ethno-futurist project from Chuvashia, a small republic in Russia with a rich but little-known culture. At its core lies a mission: to preserve and reimagine the rich musical traditions of Chuvashia, a region often called “the land of one hundred thousand songs.” Today, Chuvash culture is often overshadowed by Russian culture, so a strong folk project from the region is very important. Founded in 2019, DIVA acts as a cultural ambassador, sharing Chuvash music with the world. Even the name DIVA is symbolic: it comes from ancient Chuvash runes and means a life path toward truth, love, unity, and creation. Şăltăr Vitĕr Şol Korănat (Through the Star the Road is Visible) is the third album by DIVA Ethno Future Sound. It is a conceptual work based on traditional Chuvash recruit songs: old farewell and lament songs about leaving home and facing fate. The music combines ancient folk melodies with modern sound. The album’s inclusion in the Top 10 of the Russian World Music Chart 2025 confirms its artistic quality and cultural importance. We virtually sat down with Ruslan Solovyov, the founder and leader of DIVA Ethno Future Sound, to talk about the meaning behind their name, the symbolic power of Chuvash runes, the emotional weight of recruit songs, and how the band sees its role in preserving and promoting Chuvash identity for new generations.
The name of your group and album is deeply symbolic and based on ancient Chuvash runes. How do these symbols shape your artistic vision and the messages you want to convey through your music?
Our music is Chuvash folk songs, songs that have passed through the sieve of time, crystallized by it, songs that reflect the entire life of the Chuvash people, their simple beauty and deep wisdom. We want the world to discover the beauty of Chuvash culture and be equally amazed by it. And of course, we want the life of the Chuvash people to continue, just as long and majestic as the flow of the Volga, on whose banks our wonderful people live. It somehow happened naturally that the name DIVA came together from Chuvash runic symbols, each of which, like hieroglyphs, has its own meaning: the first symbol, a triangle, means truth, law, justice; the second symbol, a straight line, means life’s path; the third symbol, in the shape of a heart, means love, unity, loyalty; the fourth symbol means creation and mutual help. So, from ancient Chuvash, DIVA translates as “The life path toward Truth, in Love, unity, loyalty, in Creation and mutual help.” The Chuvash are a very peaceful and hardworking people, and they have always lived this way in unity, in labor, in mutual help (the Chuvash still preserve the national tradition of Nime -selfless help from the whole community), with deep reverence for Nature, and with God in their hearts. In fact, just as God is love, He is also life, truth, unity, loyalty, creation, and the path itself. This is what we want to share through our music. Our album of recruit songs is called “Şăltăr Vitĕr Şol Korănat” – Through the Star the Road is Visible.
In this album you draw inspiration from Chuvash recruit songs and folk songs from different regions. Why recruit songs in particular?
In Chuvash song culture, recruit songs are a special layer. People of other ethnicities often wonder why the Chuvash have so many of them. The reason is that, as I said, the Chuvash are very peace-loving. The very word “Chuvash” means “peaceful.” Ever since the Chuvash were first conscripted centuries ago into lifelong military service, into war, recruit songs began to appear. Essentially, these are farewell songs, songs of lament, memorial songs. In Chuvash folklore, they are among the most archaic and sacred in spirit.
The song “Utatăp-utatăp” is both a lament and a meditation on separation from home. How does this story reflect personal experience compared to collective cultural memory?
I think collective cultural memory is precisely built from the personal experiences of individuals who make up a community. This experience is reflected in songs that, over time, become folk songs, passed from generation to generation, sung century after century. For a Chuvash person, home, family, fellow villagers are vital. Even in the 21st century, Chuvash people remain close to nature, to the land, to their native village. Separation from these core life values is not just parting, it is a tragedy, the end of the world, an apocalypse. The Chuvash love and value life deeply. Our next album will be dedicated to festive Chuvash songs, celebrating beauty, joy, and the triumph of life.
Does ethno-futurism play a central role in your music? And what does ethno-futurism mean to you?
Honestly, I never think about which style or direction our music belongs to. What matters to me is preserving the uniqueness of Chuvash music: its melodiousness, based on pentatonic scales; its harmonic resolutions characteristic only of Chuvash music; its unique polyrhythms found in no other people. But we do all this while keeping today’s listener in mind, with hope for tomorrow’s. In that sense, maybe we could be called ethno-futurists. But again, the song itself always tells you how it wants to be heard. The style doesn’t matter. What matters is that it is honest and sincere.
In songs such as “Horăn Tărri Ai Homhanat” and “Vărman Hĕrrine Ai Pas Tytnă,” much attention is given to nature. How important is nature in your storytelling, and how does it affect the emotional tone of the songs?
Your work is not only musical but also cultural. How do you see your role in preserving Chuvash heritage, and what impact do you hope to have on the younger generation?
I would be very glad if, through our music, people discover Chuvashia. And if we inspire young people to create, especially within the framework of Chuvash musical culture, I think that would be one of our greatest achievements.
How do you conceptually structure your albums, and what do you hope listeners will feel as they go through that journey? How many albums have you released so far?
Right now, it’s trendy to release singles. On the one hand, this trend is understandable. Sometimes a single song can indeed be more interesting than a thousand others, but that’s extremely rare. I really like the tradition of releasing albums, where all the songs are tied together by a common idea. This is especially interesting when it comes to folk music. So far, we have released three albums: Chuvash Stanzas & Songs
Tell us a little about Chuvashia. What makes Chuvashia unique, and how are the Chuvash culture different from other peoples living in Russia?
For me personally, Chuvashia is a very special land where the air is sweeter, the sky bluer, and the grass greener. But that’s natural, because Chuvashia is my homeland. I don’t compare one people with another, it’s like comparing the colors of the rainbow. A rainbow is beautiful in its diversity! Each people, each ethnicity, each nationality is unique and interesting in its own way. There are no uninteresting cultures. Every national culture is a priceless diamond in the global cultural treasury of humanity. And each generation contributes its facet to this great cultural gem. I believe we were all created different so that we could be more curious about one another and show each other love, sharing the fullness and joy of earthly life. I truly wish that “love and dreams would rule the world, and above it all a Star would shine brightly!” (a quote from Viktor Tsoi’s song “Red-Yellow Days”).
DIVA Ethno Future Sound – Şăltăr Vitĕr Şol Korănat (Self Released, 2025)
With the album “Şăltăr Vitĕr Şol Korănat “, (Through the Star the Road is Visible), the project DIVA Ethno Future Sound turns to the most ancient and sacred layers of Chuvash culture. Built around recruit songs, which means songs of farewell and loss), the album sounds like a collective memory. DIVA is an ethno-futurist project from Chuvashia Republic, founded in 2019, and today it can rightfully be called a cultural ambassador of Chuvash music to the world. At a time when Chuvash culture has largely been absorbed into the dominant Russian context, the emergence of such a project is especially significant. Şăltăr Vitĕr Şol Korănat is the group’s third album and their most conceptual work to date, bringing together recruit songs from different ethno-territorial groups of the Chuvash. The album’s music is built on deep respect for its source material. Pentatonic melodies, distinctive Chuvash harmonic resolutions, and complex polyrhythms are carefully preserved and organically woven into contemporary arrangements. Modern production and subtle electronic elements do not overpower tradition, but in modern Russian musical reality project without electronic sound wouldn’t find its listener, unfortunately. The theme of separation from home occupies a central place in the album. Songs such as “Utatăp-utatăp” is about departure from one’s native land and family. In Chuvash culture connection to village life and homeland remains vital even in the 21st century, this separation carries an almost apocalyptic intensity. Personal experience and collective memory merge here, which is precisely how true folk songs are born. Nature is an equal participant in the storytelling. Images of land, water, forests, and stars draw on the traditional Chuvash poetic form known as ҫavра юрă (a “rounded,” complete song in which human life is reflected through natural metaphors). The album’s title itself, “Through the Star the Road is Visible,” sounds like a philosophical formula. The symbolic dimension of the project is equally important. The name DIVA is formed from ancient Chuvash runic symbols and translates as “the life path toward Truth, in Love, unity, loyalty, creation, and mutual help.” This idea runs through the entire album: the music becomes a form of cultural service, an effort to preserve and pass on tradition without turning it into a museum artifact. Şăltăr Vitĕr Şol Korănat is an album that does not require knowledge of the language to be understood. DIVA Ethno Future Sound remind us that as long as folk music albums like this exist, the road through the star remains visible.
Daryana Antipova
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