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mini-update take 2

- In the era of hybrid everything, Ljova is practicing on a new instrument -- a 6-string hybrid made by Eric Aceto. It doesn't yet have a name -- hence, we're running a baby-naming contest. See more pictures, hear samples, and win free CDs for your help in the contest -- give it your best shot -- entries accepted until May 31.

- Ljova & the Vjola Contraband = Ljova and the Kontraband.
We've decided to shorten our name in the hope that now it will actually fit on a marquee. It's bound to be a little confusing as we try to rename our web presence and materials, so please hold tight. Same band, same ever-changing repertoire.

- We've posted a new video from our January 2008 show at Joe's Pub, and the Brooklyn Rider's have posted several more from their set - enjoy!

- Ljova & Inna went to Moscow in January to visit the Winnie "The Pooh" Sanders (pictured above), whose honeyed addiction sounds eerily like that of an alcoholic .. and also to celebrate Ljova's parents' 30th anniversary - congratulations to them! View our Moscow pictures.

- Ljova's music was featured on Delta Air Lines flights in January and February. Chose your airline wisely. (Delta flyers - Ljova's debut CD, Vjola: World on Four Strings, can be obtained here.)

Last but not least, a semi-anonymous snapshot of CURRENT PROJECTS:
-- mixing the debut recording of Ljova & the Kontraband
-- original score for a short animated film (with live orchestra!)
-- arrangements for a short-subject film by Michel Gondry
-- practicing!

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Reviews

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

Rustic dances and evocative soundscapes, all crafted from ... the gorgeously grainy purr of his fiddle.
---Steve Smith, Time Out New York

Eclectic with an ear for texture...Throaty melodies supported by pizzicato rhythms, lush chordal figures and counterpoint.
---Allan Kozinn, New York Times

Though he was born in the string quarry of Russia and refined in the purifying precincts of Juilliard, Zhurbin turned out to be a lover of gritty hybrids. The music he writes and plays is full of Brahmsian tone, Bartók lines, hiccupping Hungarian rhythms, Klezmer soul and the sexy plaintiveness of tango and the blues.
---Justin Davidson, Newsday

Best of June 2006 New Releases
---John Schaefer, host of WNYC's New Sounds and Soundcheck

Like many younger musicians, this leader has absorbed a panoply of music and gleefully undermines rigid notions of genre.
---Sean Patrick Fitzell, ALL ABOUT JAZZ

From the poignant to the jolly... a superb player and composer, a Brilliant Debut. (Top 10 Jewish Records of 2006)
---George Robinson, THE JEWISH WEEK

No barriers...Fluid stylistic grace...
---Ken Smith, GRAMOPHONE Magazine

The off-kilter rhythms he favors ... tug and pull at you in strange and mysterious ways, as do Ljova's melodies, which have the tuneful, emotive quality of good pop.
---Alexander Gelfand, JAZZIZ Magazine

Proves that an integration between seemingly different cultures is possible, inevitable, and fruitful
---Osvaldo Golijov, composer