LJOVA (Lev Zhurbin) - film composer, arranger, violist

if you happen to catch yourself dancing to this, could you please post a video?

Thanks -- you enjoy. :)

Sometimes, my parents sing to me:

I've often said that in order to continually develop as a musician, you have to act like you're 20 -- curious, but pessimistic.

With that in mind, a gentle reminder:
When I was 15, I used to listen and study music, and try to write something in that style, imitate and learn the language at all costs. I wanted to be better than everybody at whatever the "thing" was.

When I was 20, I used to rebel against pretty much everything.

When I was 27, I finally found a connection to some music which was really "for me" -- naturally, it was made by musicians who were acting like they're 20.

Now that this year I'm turning 30, I'm starting to feel like I have certain strengths, and I should capitalize on them ..

..clearly, I didn't learn anything...
:)

I walked by a neighborhood coffee shop on the Upper East Side the other day, and saw a "No Laptops Allowed" sign. For a moment, I felt chills, and just then, I realized that I was staring future in the face.

What does it tell you when a neighborhood coffee shop doesn't allow laptops? -- that their users tend to buy one drink (anywhere between $2-6) and stay for hours. That was certainly the case at alt.coffee in the East Village, until they decided to plug all of their electrical outlets shut, citing "insurance" concerns. Working on a laptop at a cafe combines at least three important life activities into one: caffeine consumption, people-watching, and work. With free wifi, the cost of that $6 latte is practically tax deductible, and getting work done actually feels like a vacation, not to mention that, while hooked into the internet, you can read more magazines, and hear more amazing music, than you could ever try to in your lifetime, almost without cost..

And yet, that model is increasingly becoming unsustainable for the coffee-shop owners. Some start charging for internet services (like Starbucks); others get rid of the internet entirely, others turn up the music so loud that you can't think... Other coffee shops simply close, or re-open "with a new concept". My neighborhood coffee shop on the Upper West Side (the old Columbus Bakery) re-opened with such a new concept, as a marriage of "Pinch" and "S'mac" - a pizzeria and a mac-n-cheese joint...

I tried at length to write a post about how musicians are similar to coffee-shop owners, how we all seek an intimate connection with their listeners and customers. But on closer examination, that comparison fails - the upfront hard costs of starting and running a coffee shop cannot compare with the fairly negligible costs of making music. Where the coffee-shops are trying to monetize their tables by shooing away laptop-laden cyborg freeloaders or asking for a fee, we try to woo them with free downloads, videos, and podcasts -- we *hope* they will monetize one day, and celebrate each of their purchases as we would the first steps of a child.

It's great to live in hope, in faith, in innocence -- just wish that they still lived in a coffee shop.

My parents are always close - this close.

Holy Batman of experimental.. food?
3:10am Moscow time, Inna and I finally watched "Ratatouille" - a film whose title few in the US will know how to spell, let alone pronounce. What's it about? Rats - cooking. Somehow, a kids movie about intolerance turned into one of the smartest, most addictive, memorable films of the year.

Do I ever sound-off like a 12 year-old on my blog? No!
But you must - must - MUST - rent this brilliant film!
Bravo, Pixar! Bravo, too, to Michael Giacchino for his brilliant score.
Wish it were a musical.

What in the horror world is this? -- Why, it's a picture of my brand new baby. I'm anxious to denounce any rumors that its immaculate conception belongs to my wife, or J-Lo.
But what should we call it? That, my friends, is up to you - see below, and thank you!

This new baby is a 6-stringed acoustic instrument, made by the excellent Eric Aceto of Ithaca, NY. On its belly, it carries the strings of a viola (C-G-D-A), the violin (G-D-A-E) and a super-low string (F), one pitch higher than the bottom note of the guitar. Size-wise, it's taller than a violin but shorter than a viola, clocking in at 14 inches.

So what should we call it? I'd like to propose a baby-naming contest.
I'll be taking names in the comments below, until midnight Eastern Time (GMT -5) on February 29, 2008, at which point I'll put all of the entries up for a vote.
Winner will receive a signed copy of my debut CD, Vjola: World on Four Strings, and a signed copy of the upcoming CD release by Ljova & the Vjola Contraband, which will be ready in the late summer. You'll also have my eternal gratitude, which you can not (as yet) pawn on Ebay..

Possible suggestions already include:
-- mezzo violin
-- hexañola (or hexagnola)
-- viola da samba
-- six-e beast
-- the beast


To inspire and a-muse you, I'm including the first two recordings I made on the new instrument:
FRESH WOOD (download the mp3 here)

and JAM JEROME, an excerpt from a longer jam with the guitarist and composer Jerome Covington (download the mp3 here)


Want to see more pictures of the new instrument? Sure you do - head right this way.

Enjoy the music, and thank you for any input!

--Ljova (& Eric Aceto), pictured below

Some film composer in Los Angeles is looking for an assistant on Craigslist, in a very creative way -- to wit:


Need driver with own car all day Saturday (tomorrow). We will start around 9 AM on some errands around LA, then drive to Pismo Beach at noon, returning between 7 and 8 PM, depending on traffic. Pismo is just north of Santa Maria and south of San Luis Obispo, approximately 2 ½ hours away. The pay is $20/hour, or about $200, plus gas. Please send an email with your contact number and a time you can be reached this evening. A picture and short letter would also be helpful, especially if you would like to be considered for the permanent position of Composer's Assistant.

The permanent position of Assistant to a well-known composer of music for film, TV and commercials is opening in January. There has been nearly zero turnover in the 20 years since this business started hiring. Two prior assistants became TV producers immediately after working as the Composer's Assistant, because of the high level of competency, organization and finesse required, representing him to industry executives, studio producers and international publishers and producers in Cannes, London and Paris, as well as maintaining a high level of visibility in Hollywood. The most successful assistants had similar strengths: Great organizational skills, the ability to project a classy, professional image, and a high level of enthusiasm for the music. The job requires a genuine enjoyment of demanding producers and directors.

For the new assistant, this is a rare chance to learn the music business from a successful composer and publisher during the industry's most dramatic changes since Irving Berlin started ASCAP a hundred years ago. Unlike her predecessors, this assistant needs to be knowledgeable in electronic content delivery via the Internet, as well as in web design and database management. She will learn how the business of music is done and gain extensive experience in international music publishing, including worldwide rights administration as it is conducted in Europe, Japan, Australia, South Africa and Scandinavia, as well as 30 other countries.

The position includes assisting the Composer in the management of three International Music Publishing houses and the administration of more than 3,000 copyrights from more than 2,000 TV episodes, hundreds of major TV commercials, and more than 200 films broadcast in every country in the world.

Surrounded by horses, dogs, cats, and bare-footed children, the environment is relaxed and a high level of creativity is encouraged. Everyone is free to explore their own personal style, from pink hair and torn fishnets to pin striped suits and pantyhose, as long as the work gets done, and itÂ’s a lot of work, especially with the change-over from CD to online distribution, which will be spearheaded by the assistant.

The Composer is one of Hollywood's leading music composer/producers, having written the music for 1,000 TV episodes and more than 200 films. Please apply to this advance post about the position if you are interested as the Hollywood Reporter announcement causes a rush of applicants. Preferred attributes are: an outgoing phone personality, great organizational skills, enthusiasm for music and photography (composer is also a professional photographer, author and yoga master), a love of dance (we work with choreographers and dancers), cutting edge fashion (and fashion designers), as well as anime and "New TV". A WIDE range of taste in music is almost required, as we produce music in every style, without exception, including GOA Trance, electronica, speed metal, orchestral (with real orchestras!), Banda, country western, punk rock, mouth music and everything in between. The position relies heavily on organizational skills, the ability to promote music to DJs and producers, and lining up radio interviews for out of town workshops (easy at the moment because of a recent CD series with such best-selling authors as Deepak Chopra and John Bradshaw). A love of fashion and design is helpful and the ability to create web pages is essential.

Please write ASAP tonight and, considering how late this is going up, please include a morning phone number as well. Good luck. Need driver with own car all day Saturday (tomorrow). We will start around 9 AM on some errands around LA, then drive to Pismo Beach at noon, returning between 7 and 8 PM, depending on traffic. Pismo is just north of Santa Maria and south of San Luis Obispo, approximately 2 ½ hours away. The pay is $20/hour, or about $200, plus gas. Please send an email with your contact number and a time you can be reached this evening. A picture and short letter would also be helpful, especially if you would like to be considered for the permanent position of Composer's Assistant. More info about that position follows...

The permanent position of Assistant to a well-known composer of music for film, TV and commercials is opening in January. There has been nearly zero turnover in the 20 years since this business started hiring. Two prior assistants became TV producers immediately after working as the Composer's Assistant, because of the high level of competency, organization and finesse required, representing him to industry executives, studio producers and international publishers and producers in Cannes, London and Paris, as well as maintaining a high level of visibility in Hollywood. The most successful assistants had similar strengths: Great organizational skills, the ability to project a classy, professional image, and a high level of enthusiasm for the music. The job requires a genuine enjoyment of demanding producers and directors.

For the new assistant, this is a rare chance to learn the music business from a successful composer and publisher during the industry's most dramatic changes since Irving Berlin started ASCAP a hundred years ago. Unlike her predecessors, this assistant needs to be knowledgeable in electronic content delivery via the Internet, as well as in web design and database management. She will learn how the business of music is done and gain extensive experience in international music publishing, including worldwide rights administration as it is conducted in Europe, Japan, Australia, South Africa and Scandinavia, as well as 30 other countries.

The position includes assisting the Composer in the management of three International Music Publishing houses and the administration of more than 3,000 copyrights from more than 2,000 TV episodes, hundreds of major TV commercials, and more than 200 films broadcast in every country in the world.

Surrounded by horses, dogs, cats, and bare-footed children, the environment is relaxed and a high level of creativity is encouraged. Everyone is free to explore their own personal style, from pink hair and torn fishnets to pin striped suits and pantyhose, as long as the work gets done, and itÂ’s a lot of work, especially with the change-over from CD to online distribution, which will be spearheaded by the assistant.

The Composer is one of Hollywood's leading music composer/producers, having written the music for 1,000 TV episodes and more than 200 films. Please apply to this advance post about the position if you are interested as the Hollywood Reporter announcement causes a rush of applicants. Preferred attributes are: an outgoing phone personality, great organizational skills, enthusiasm for music and photography (composer is also a professional photographer, author and yoga master), a love of dance (we work with choreographers and dancers), cutting edge fashion (and fashion designers), as well as anime and "New TV". A WIDE range of taste in music is almost required, as we produce music in every style, without exception, including GOA Trance, electronica, speed metal, orchestral (with real orchestras!), Banda, country western, punk rock, mouth music and everything in between. The position relies heavily on organizational skills, the ability to promote music to DJs and producers, and lining up radio interviews for out of town workshops (easy at the moment because of a recent CD series with such best-selling authors as Deepak Chopra and John Bradshaw). A love of fashion and design is helpful and the ability to create web pages is essential.

Please write ASAP tonight and, considering how late this is going up, please include a morning phone number as well. Good luck.


A few days later, that person posted a second ad:

This job is more demanding than it looks. It is really three seperate positions: Personal Assistant/Driver, Executive Secretary and PR Person. Duties include driving music producer/composer to appointments in your car making calls and doing business on the way, on two cell phones, organizing the move to a new studio, keeping both business and personal appointments, as well as managing, and sometimes initiating, several projects at once, some on your own, so that you need to be self-starting and self-disciplined, as well as able and willing to follow directions (even ones that sound strange and illogical - this is Hollywood!). Learning on the job is required, so flexibility is essential. Integrity and pride in your work product are needed in this position. The job is about maintaining a vision of the end product and intuitively understanding all the steps needed to move from the present reality to that goal efficiently, economically, and with success.

We've received a lot of applications and inquireies with no photo. Please include one - a snapshot will do - it helps to form an overall picture of the person and without it, someone else is likely to be chosen over you.

A knowledge of the film and TV business is helpful, especially the business of film and TV scoring. Musical knowledge is not necessary, or requested, but experience as a Personal Assistant and as a composer's, actor's or director's agent are invaluable. Computer knowledge is essential and website design is needed at this time. The job requires good people skills and the ability to tame chaos with super-human organizational skills.

Although a knowledge of music is not necessary, enthusiasm for our product is and you will have a chance to become acquainted with it before being asked to arrange meetings with prospective clients.

The position begins immediately and for the right person, will probably become permanent. Salary will start at $15/hour then adjust to a wage representative of applicant's abilities and commitment.

Please send an email with photo ASAP if you are interested. Apply ASAP if you are easy-going, like people, and are a happy person. If you are into fashion and dance that is major plus, as these are the producer's favorite art forms. Send your email ASAP if you can get excited about the international music publishing business and are able to unclutter, organize and focus a busy office. If you are tolerant, warm, professional, self-motivated and, above all, able to roll with the punches, please send a letter describing your past experience and goals immediately with a recent, representative picture.


And so, a question - is this guy real, or is he just trying to find a hot assistant to drive him around in a beaten-up 1982 Toyota Corolla? :)

As innabar continues her Vox365 Project in the third day, she asks me for creative input. I politely decline. Recording material explicitly for remixing is like trying to craft scrap metal before throwing it away. Why should I have any input on someone else's scrap metal? One woman's out of tune note is another's nirvana, one broken phrase is another's disco loop. There is no reason for me to intervene -- my job is simply to press record, encode, and upload. That's probably another reason why I think that recording material for remixing is not terribly productive. Enjoyable, yes, but not terribly productive. You can say "Gah" and someone will find use for it; you can sing melodies, and someone will steal them.. but does it really help your growth as an artist? I'm not so sure.


On another note, enjoy a new piece I just recorded - a quasi-raga of sorts, definitely inspired by John Adams' Dharma at Big Sur to which I was listening earlier, at the gym. This new piece ("Fresh Wood 1") was recorded on my new instrument, about which I'll have a separate post in a day or two. Meanwhile, enjoy!

When I was a child, I spoke in screams and whimpers -- I could sure make a scene;
Later, I spoke in desires, and drew shapes - first oddball, then musical.
Then I learned Russian, though I still preferred to confide almost exclusively to my teddy bear, and speaking bully to just about anyone else. Moscow winters were tough, and practicing the violin seemed like a curse.

For a while, I thought and spoke in Russian daily; when we moved to New York, I learned English. Eventually, I began to speak + think in English, my teddy bear caught up quickly.

These days, I feel increasingly alienated from any language, aside from "Email", a language in which I communicate exceptionally well. I know the styles like the palm of my hand. There's formal, semi-formal, casual, hipster, and various other nuanced shades meant to elicit a response. There are openings, closings, and ways to emphasize content. There's also SMS/Text, the diminutive cousin.

It's very comforting. I have little problem rattling off 100+ emails a day on many projects, but give me a phone-call, and momentarily a mental timer starts to beat, a sign rapidly blinking "you're not multitasking!!". I check the time, scan a magazine, open another tab, window, politely steering the conversation to fizzle out, so that we can confirm everything by email. I rarely take phone-calls when I'm at home, but always when I'm on the run.

There is something about email, and facebook, that has made (my) life much easier to manage. But it has also compartmentalized and eroded relationships to such a degree that having a regular conversation doesn't appear necessary. For example --

"How are you?"
"Check my Facebook status"

"Where did you go on honeymoon?"
"Check my blog, and fotki site for pictures"

"Tell me a little about your band"
"Sure! we're really fun, and for videos and reviews, see my website.."

"Let me tell you how to get to my house from the train station"
"No need, I've got GPS and Google Maps directions"

"I've just had this incredible meal at X"
"I've just read several reviews of it on Yelp/Menupages/Citysearch, and they're all negative"
..and so forth.

Pretty much the only conversation-piece is something which cannot, by sheer complexity or unwieldy nature, be posted online, or an idea that is too improvised to hold its structure in anything but a live in-person performance.

And yet, something's missing from all of this omnivorousness. The people who most often interest me are not ones who're pouring out buckets of content weekly, but those who -- maybe, possibly -- make three or four splashes a year. They don't really use facebook, and can barely if ever get back to an email. They're too busy - reading, writing, catching a 6pm dinner with friends, and contending with larger forms. Bless 'em.

10 years ago, email used to be for procrastination; now, it's vital to getting work done. When someone is "catching up on some email", that's productive -- but returning phonecalls, seeing friends? Time consuming.

I wish I could quit - quit using all of these new resources, and just talk to people in a friendly, unhurried, non-neurotic manner. But with no barriers on my working hours, with so much going on in the world (in the news and otherwise), with having to manage everything + follow up, the optimistic amount of things I try to accomplish daily... the lure of efficiency is too hard to resist.

Let's hope that, at least, I can still devote ample energy to music.

innabar recorded the second installment of her Vox365 Project this evening; meanwhile, I'm wondering if this whole Remix thing is a 2007 fad. In particular, the collecting of little blips and things.

I could certainly be wrong, and perhaps to a large extent, I am, but there is something about remixing material that (for me) would have to present an argument, not just be a free-floating component. Components aren't large enough to present an argument, to truly inside with a larger work, that is, unless they refer to a larger concept. The new sample, Bouncy Pa-Ra-Pam, is long enough, though, to allude to some style, place, idea.. I'm curious to see how it will sound transformed, and by whom.

My wife and I wrote a new song together -- to the lyrics of the great Russian poet Alexander Blok.

It was a fairly equal collaboration -- Inna came up with a perfectly gorgeous tune, which I tweaked through my usual proclivities, and added a short instrumental interlude. I've never re-written a tune before, especially something so perfect, and was absolutely amazed at what Inna came up with, completely out of the blue. But little by little, tearing at the meaning of the song and the chords, made a few changes and learned a lot.

So, now we have a tiny blip of a 1:25" minute song, and sure, we can "develop" it, with an instrumental and etc. into a 3:30" memorable classic -- but I'm more excited to keep poking forks into it until it's as far from a folk or pop traditional song as my ear will allow.

It's perfectly good now -- but what else is there, what structural mayhem can I pull, what can be stretched more, what error process can I set off to do something so grossly wrong that it will come out just right, and will make all the difference?

These past few days on MySpace, I've been getting new "Friend Requests" from fake incarnations of "Tom", the MySpace founder. Some porn reseller decided to borrow Tom's infamous profile picture and stick it on his new profiles. Then, for extra ridicule, he put up pictures of scantily clad ladies and called them "Tom". It's getting really funny, but is quickly diminishing whatever relevance had left...

..meanwhile, this could be the new MySpace theme song:


happy new year. :)