LJOVA: Vjola: World on Four Strings

Ljova

Vjola: World on Four Strings

© 2006 Ljova (634479179877)

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Ljova -- a composer and arranger who frequently collaborates with Yo-Yo Ma, the Kronos Quartet and others -- takes his viola for a unique journey fusing the world's musical traditions.

tracks

1 Central Park in the Dark
2 Bagel on the Malecon
3 O'er
4 Plume
5 Ori's Fearful Symmetry
6 Coffee + Rum
7 Middle Village
8 Army of Me
9 Garmoshka
10 Crosstown
11 Seltzer, Do I Drink Too Much?
12 Four
13 Collage
14 Breadbasket Blues
15 Spring Valley Sunset

notes

viola folk music latin gypsy assymetrical rhythms indie crossover classical minimalist strings European cinematic... VIOLAS ON PARADE!

"This self-released debut recording from 27-year-old Russian-born Lev Zhurbin (aka Ljova), one of New York's fastest-rising composers and instrumentalists, is something special... Ljova continually delights"
-- Anastasia Tsioulcas, BILLBOARD
(critic's choice review)

"Best of June 2006 New Releases"
-- John Schaefer, New Sounds, WNYC Radio

"The borders separating classical music, folk, jazz and pop grow blurrier every day, rubbed out by intrepid explorers from all points along the musical spectrum. Russian-born violist-composer Lev "Ljova" Zhurbin stakes an especially choice claim on uncharted territory with his solo debut. Employing skills honed alongside Yo-Yo Ma, the Kronos Quartet and Osvaldo Golijov, Ljova mixes rustic dances and evocative soundscapes, all crafted from little more than the gorgeously grainy purr of his fiddle."
-- Steve Smith, Time Out New York

This debut release of maverick composer, arranger, and violist Ljova (Lev Zhurbin) draws on a multitude of cross-cultural influences, and is performed almost exclusively on multi-tracked viola. In addition to a
busy career as a performer and film composer, Ljova is a frequent collaborator with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Project, the Kronos Quartet, Osvaldo Golijov, as well as many other independent artists.
From blues to Bjork, to Latin and Gypsy dances, to a nostalgic Russian street-waltz (featuring Michael Ward-Bergeman on accordion), Ljova pushes the boundaries on his instrument. Using inventive improvisation and arranging techniques, his compositions dazzle with intricate textures, odd rhythms and lilting melodies, creating music that is both fresh and timeless.

"This album is a travelogue of sorts, though most journeys didn’t take me much further than the Island of Manhattan. It is a dedication to the ever-changing neighborhoods of New York City, its diverse cultures, and of course its illustrious musicians, from whom I draw much of my inspiration. Everything you hear on this album (with the exception of Michael's accordion on "Garmoshka", and the synth bass on "Breadbasket Blues") was recorded by myself on a viola. Each instrumental part was recorded separately, one after the other, and most arrangements were improvised from rough sketches. The choice of using viola as a multi-track instrument was as much artistic as it was a matter of convenience – the ensemble was cheap, hungry for a new sound, and very much of a similar mind. I hope you’ll enjoy the music and the journey!"
---Ljova

LJOVA (Lev Zhurbin) was born in 1978 in Moscow, Russia, and moved to New York with his parents, composer Alexander Zhurbin and poet Irena Ginzburg, in 1990. He divides his time between performing as a violist in diverse groups ranging from string quartets to jazz combos and gypsy bands, studying and arranging world music, and composing original music for film, TV, and the concert stage.

This is Ljova's debut album of original music. Previously, he has recorded with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble on Silk Road Journeys: Beyond the Horizon, and with The Andalucian Dogs on Ayre, featuring the music of Berio and Golijov. He has performed with guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli and tap dancer Savion Glover.

As an arranger, Ljova has completed dozens of arrangements for Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, the Kronos Quartet, Bond, and others. Resulting from these collaborations are arrangements of musics from Azerbaijian, China, India, Iran, Japan, Russia, Tanzania, as well as gypsy music from Romania and France.

As a composer, Ljova is the author of more than 70 compositions for classical, jazz, and folk ensembles, as well as scores to two features and over a dozen shorts. In 2005, Ljova was one of six fellows participating in the Sundance Institute's Film Composers Lab.

Ljova is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where he was a pupil of Samuel Rhodes.



"...[Ljova] is an extraordinarily talented and versatile musician, who has an incredible understanding of the intricacies of the imaginative mind."
---Yo-Yo Ma, cellist

"I am simply in awe of Lev's talents. He is one of the outstanding exponents of a new generation of musicians that I consider, in a good sense, mutants. Equally at home in a chamber group or symphony orchestra playing the canon of the literature or the most complex modernistic settings, or imaginatively improvising on folk melodies with musicians from around the world, Lev proves that an integration between seemingly different cultures is possible, inevitable, and fruitful. He and the other leaders of his generation are, in my view, the people that will ensure that music remains vital to the minds and hearts of a wide spectrum of people.
As a composer, arranger and violist, Lev reconnects with the tradition of composer-performer-improviser that was the norm in the past and is fortunately coming back. He does all his work at an extraordinary level."
---Osvaldo Golijov, composer

reviews

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  • From poignant to jolly... A Brilliant Debut!
    author: George Robinson, the Jewish Week

    After hearing this extraordinary album, you'll never tell another viola joke again. Ljova, a.k.a. Lev Zhurbin, a Russian emigre now living in New York City, is a superb player and composer, and this set mostly of originals ranges in emotion and colors across the globe. Multi-tracked alongside accordionist Michael Ward-Bergeman, Ljvoa is a virtuosic violist who can make the instrument do just about anything, and the set runs gracefully from the poignant to the jolly. A Brilliant debut. Rating: 5 stars

  • [Ljova] is an eclectic with an ear for texture...strikingly original and soulful
    author: Allan Kozinn, NEW YORK TIMES

    LEV ZHURBIN, a Russian-born violist who works under the name Ljova, seems to be everywhere lately. He has arranged music for the Kronos Quartet and for Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, composed soundtracks for a handful of films and turned up regularly in New York freelance ensembles. For this debut CD Mr. Zhurbin, who is 27 and lives in New York, has taken a route increasingly favored by both pop and classical musicians: he recorded the music mostly in his home studio and released it on his own label. Except for an eerily atmospheric cover of Bjork’s “Army of Me” and an arrangement of a Romanian folk song, the works here are originals. And except for an accordion line in one piece, Mr. Zhurbin does all the playing, multitracking his viola so that throaty melodies are supported by pizzicato rhythms, lush chordal figures and counterpoint. He is an eclectic, with an ear for texture. In the opening “Central Park in the Dark” (no relation to the Ives work), the viola tone is deep and recorded with enough closely focused grittiness to put its songlike melody line in perspective. Modal blues melodies are heard in several works, both directly (in “Crosstown” and “Breadbasket Blues”) and in odd mixtures (with African folk music in “Plume”). “Bagel on the Malecon” borrows Latin rhythms, and Mr. Zhurbin also touches on country music (in “Coffee & Rum”) and Middle Eastern dance figures (in “Ori’s Fearful Symmetry”). Still, his best works are more fully in classical styles. “Collage,” for one, uses electronic loops to create a Minimalist texture. And if “Spring Valley Sunset,” an unadorned solo rhapsody recorded in a field, with bird song and other attendant noises, is sonically the least polished track, it is nevertheless the most strikingly original and soulful.

  • Rich-voiced viola as multitracked and quick-witted medium...
    author: Billboard Magazine

    An album of solo viola music doesn't usually grab the spotlight. However, this self-released debut recording from 28-year-old Russian-born Lev Zhurbin (aka Ljova), one of New York's fastest-rising composers and instrumentalists, is something special. Using his rich-voiced viola as his multitracked and quick-witted medium, Ljova weaves together diverse elements from around the world to create surprising, yet organic textures in mostly original material (save Björk's "Army of Me" and a traditional Romanian tune). From the honky-tonk drawl of "Coffee & Rum" to the Cuban son of "Bagel on the Malecon" to the Balkan slides of "Middle Village," Ljova continually delights. —Anastasia Tsioulcas

  • Rustic dances and evocative soundscapes, all crafted from the gorgeously grainy
    author: Time Out Magazine

    The borders separating classical music, folk, jazz and pop grow blurrier every day, rubbed out by intrepid explorers from all points along the musical spectrum. Russian-born violist-composer Lev "Ljova" Zhurbin stakes an especially choice claim on uncharted territory with his solo debut. Employing skills honed alongside Yo-Yo Ma, the Kronos Quartet and Osvaldo Golijov, Ljova mixes rustic dances and evocative soundscapes, all crafted from little more than the gorgeously grainy purr of his fiddle. -- Steve Smith (Time Out Magazine)

  • Sneaky Music
    author: Drew Daniel - (of Matmos)

    "We liked it. [The] Bjork cover was sly and free of cliché, which can show up awful quick when a stringed instrument folows a vocal melody. Sneaky music."

  • A wonderful debut recording... y muy divertido, tambien!
    author: Jane Heir

    I had the extreme pleasure of hearing "the bagel song" on Ljova's MySpace website and promptly fell for its charm. The whole CD is great and never leaves the changer in my car because that's where I do all my "real" listening. Ljova is someone you must hear--a wonderful new artist!

  • WOW
    author: Dustin

    I love music! I must admit... i wasn't sure what the full cd would sound like, but i was greatly & pleasantly pleased when i heard the whole thing! It's wonderful. great sound. Keep up the good work and do not stop playing. EVER!!

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