A Belarusian Catalogue Single From 2023 Pairs an 80s Rock Drive with Alt Pop Hooks
Space Girl runs on the energetic drive of 80s rock, with catchy alt rock pop melodies on top. It is the work of Soul Violet, the project led by songwriter and guitarist Egor Fenchenko, from the Vitebsk region of Belarus. Fenchenko released Space Girl as a Soul Violet single on 23 June 2023, the same day its official video went up on YouTube.
Soul Violet’s Space Girl is in the playlist below, next to this desk’s hard rock and arena rock selections, and the Soul Violet artist profile collects the project’s coverage. The single reached RockRevival.News through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news desks. Put it on, then keep reading for the wave it belongs to.
Soul Violet’s Space Girl and the Belarusian Wave Built on the 1980s
The region’s capital, Vitebsk, is Belarus’s fourth-largest city, in the north-east of the country. Since 1992 it has hosted Slavianski Bazaar, an annual festival whose main programme is devoted to Slavic music. However, some of the Belarusian music that has travelled furthest in recent years draws on the 1980s instead.
The clearest example is Molchat Doma from Minsk. The band formed in 2017 and plays post-punk, new wave, synth-pop and cold wave. Their second album, Etazhi, came out in 2018 on the German label Detriti Records. Then, in the first half of 2020, their song Sudno (Boris Ryzhy) spread across TikTok. That same year they signed to the American label Sacred Bones Records. Meanwhile, Minsk Not Dead’s guides to the local scene list more acts drawn from the same decade, from the cold wave of Super Besse to the melodic post-punk of Akute.
Where Soul Violet Fits as a Vitebsk Region Alt Rock Pop Project Fourteen Singles In
Soul Violet takes the warmer route through that decade. Molchat Doma lean into cold wave. Space Girl, by contrast, keeps the 80s rock drive and sets catchy pop melodies over it. That lands it closer to alternative pop than to post-punk. The official video even carries a #retro tag, about as plain a statement of intent as a hashtag gets.
Fenchenko writes the songs and plays guitar. On the project’s YouTube channel, Fenchenko also lists recording covers and a love of musical equipment and everything connected with sound. A cover of La Vie En Rose sits on that channel next to the originals.
The catalogue shows steady work. Soul Violet’s first single, The Evening Promised To Be Rainy, came out in August 2021. Space Girl followed as the seventh single, released on the project’s own Soul Violet Records imprint. Dream Lord arrived about two months later. Since then the run has reached 14 singles. They include Secrets and So Soft in 2024, both with official videos, plus Tishina (Silence) in 2025 and Proshchay (Farewell) that December.
So who is Space Girl for? It suits listeners who like 80s rock but want it with a modern pop finish: a driving rock pulse under catchy melodies. For them, it is the best starting point in the Soul Violet catalogue.
Adjacent Acts for Soul Violet, From Dlina Volny in Minsk to The Killers
Closest to home, Dlina Volny work the synth side of the same decade. The Minsk band formed in 2016. Minsk Not Dead described them as reinterpreting synth-pop with cold wave, and singled out the English-language vocals of Masha Zinevich. Their debut album, Mechty, was described there as melodic reminiscence. Where Dlina Volny build on synths, Soul Violet builds on guitar. Both, though, start from a 1980s palette.
The next link runs through Akute. The Belarusian-language band from Mahilioŭ name New Order, The Cure and The Killers among their influences, according to Minsk Not Dead.
That brings in The Killers, who show how far this blend can travel. Their 2004 debut, Hot Fuss, drew mostly on new wave and post-punk. On top of it they set big rock guitars and pop choruses, on singles such as Mr. Brightside and Somebody Told Me. The album reached number one on the UK Albums Chart. Space Girl works the same idea on a smaller scale: an 80s rock engine with a chorus-first pop sensibility.
Where to Hear Space Girl and Follow Soul Violet
The listener this suits already has one foot in each camp. If Molchat Doma’s Etazhi and The Killers’ Hot Fuss share a shelf in your collection, Space Girl sits comfortably between them.
RockRevival.News’s curator team:
“At three minutes and 39 seconds, Space Girl is the quickest way into a catalogue whose first single ran past seven minutes. It is the song we would play first to anyone asking what a Vitebsk take on 80s rock sounds like.”
Stream Space Girl on Spotify. Then follow Soul Violet on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and VK.
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