DakhaBrakha brings its wildly original take on traditional Ukrainian singing to Sunset Center.

DakhaBrakha means “to give to take” in the ancient Ukrainian pre-Soviet dialect, and the caption beneath his press kit photo says “director, ideologue and founder of the DakhaBrakha band” – but Vladyslav Troitskyi sees it differently.

“We wouldn’t exist as a musical unit were it not for the fact that these three women worked in my avant-garde theater company in Kyiv, Ukraine,” he says. “We made music for the many plays we did… after many tours of Europe, we began to be invited to music festivals. It was at those festivals that we began to realize that perhaps our music could be interesting as a self-sufficient thing.”

All three women, cellist Nina Garenetska, percussionist Olena Tsybulska and keyboardist Iryna Kovalenko are multi-instrumentalists, as is Troitskyi, and each studied traditional Ukrainian folk songs as children. All band members possess multi-octave voices; Troitskyi challenged them to follow a path of experimentation with a goal of expanding the envelope of traditional Ukrainian singing.

The result is wildly original rhythms and vocals. The driven gypsy/folk fusion involves musical elements and instruments not only from Ukraine, but also of Indian, Arabic, African, Russian and Australian roots – plus fleeting influences from jazz, spoken word rap and even punk.

The band calls it “ethno-chaos,” band manager Iryna Gorban explains.

“It is the combination of all the different elements, genres, rhythms and impressions that go into our work,” she says. “All of those things, taken together, make up our chaos as a basis for creating our music.”

Speaking of chaos, a question arises as to how a Ukrainian quartet is able to tour and perform right now.

“Yes, most Ukrainian musicians, our friends, were forced to take up arms to protect their families, our cities and our country,” Gorban says. “Our decision to go abroad and give concerts was not easy for us. But on the advice of friends and colleagues, we decided to continue doing our job to participate in concerts, give interviews, and raise money for children, doctors and the military.

“We dream of one day playing in all the major cities of Ukraine on a tour dedicated to our victory over the evil Russian marauders.”

DAKHABRAKHA 7pm Monday, April 25. Sunset Center, San Carlos and 9th Ave., Carmel. $40-$70. 620-2048, sunsetcenter.org