Biography
“As for ‘The Mystery Of The Seven Stars’, the sound is gentle and soulful with a playful edge. Folktronica has arrived in SA and it sounds like a rush of fresh, sweet air.” – Kgomotso Moncho, The Pretoria News
Fulka is the stage and recording name of folktronica singer-songwriter, Ola Kobak. Ola Kobak was raised in a polish home in Pretoria, South Africa. The name Fulka derives from a germanic noun meaning "people" or "army", it means 'to fight for that which is true'.
Ola was born 19 September 1985. She was raised just outside Pretoria, in Centurion, where her father worked as a full time session musician playing for the likes of Natalie Cole, Lucky Dube, Mango Groove and many musical theatre productions such as Chicago and Hairspray. Her father and mother arrived in South Africa with 50 dollars and no ability to speak English or Afrikaans.
Ola grew up with a background in music starting at the age of four when her grandfather in Poland taught her traditional polish, folk songs and rhymes. Her love for music grew and when she was in primary school, she was playing piano and was in the school orchestra as well as the choir. When she was 13, she sang for Nelson Mandela at the OR Tambo airport (then, the Jan Smuts airport), in a hanger and infront of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund airplane. Ola graduated with a honours degree in Information Design at the University of Pretoria.
After Ola wrote the songs, recorded and did pre-production in her bedroom studio, Jacob Israel from Benjamin Studios in Pretoria recorded, co-produced and mixed the debut album "The Mystery of The Seven Stars in 2010. Alongside Ola is a very veritable army of talent that includes her husband, well known electro maestro Jacob Israel, layering the drum beats, vintage synthesizers and production; multi- instrumentalist Corné Roodt, playing anything from piano to bass, drums, accordion and banjo; Christian Henn, whom the group describe as a kind of ‘song construction engineer’ and Jean-Louise Nel whom captivates with her backing vocals and viola. Other artists featured on the album include progressive trumpeter Marcus Wyatt (from Language 12) and Janus van der Merwe (from the nu jazz band, Donkey) and Ola’s father, Speedy Kobak, who has been sessioning as a trombone player for many bands including Lucky Dube, Natalie Cole and Johnny Clegg.
23 March 2011 marked the Pretoria launch date for Fulka's first full lenght album: ‘The Mystery Of The Seven Stars’. For their first launch show, Fulka showcased their brand of Folktronica (a niche genre that fuses folk music with electronica to create a sound that is both subtle and revolutionary) at Tings an' Times in Pretoria (1065 Arcadia Street, Hatfield).
The special guests for the launch shows were: Isochronous Pretoria and Johannesburg launch shows); and also DJ Kidu (JHB show) and Sven The Bear (DBN show).
Fronted by Polish singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ola Kobak, Fulka is on a mission to enrich the local music scene with something unique and substantial. And their efforts are starting to pay off.
‘Dancing In Our Darkest Days’, the first official single off of, The Mystery Of The Seven Stars, has already reached the number 1 spot on several charts on the radio station Tuks FM 107.2 including the: Most Wanted Top 20, SA Top 10 and International Top 30. The music video for ‘Dancing In Our Darkest Days’ (directed and created by artist Louis Minnaar) has also been receiving decent airplay on the TV channel MK.
Fulka have been performing live since the 25th of February 2010 when the band was invited to play their first live show as the opening act for Dear Reader at the Rustic Theatre in Lonehill, JHB. Since then Fulka have performed at the Joburg Burning Festival 2010 (JHB), Tings an’ Times (PTA), at Hotbox Studios (PTA) for the Bittereinder album launch (featuring Tumi Molekane) and most Recently, Fulka performed at OPPIKOPPI 17 on August 6th.
‘The Mystery Of The Seven Stars’ was released on 10 October 2010 and was mixed and recorded by Jacob Israel at Benjamin studios (PTA). The illustrations were done by Cindy Tomczyk, with design, art direction and layout by Ola Kobak.
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