Blogs

"CUPCAKE", a short film starring Kinna McInroe and directed by Sean McPhillips, will debut at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival on April 25th.

The film features an original score by Ljova, performed by his group Ljova and the Kontraband with special guests Alon Yavnai on piano, and Marcus Rojas on tuba.

The film also features a special appearance by Ljova's wife, the vocalist Inna Barmash, who sings on the end-title song written especially for this project. You can hear it on MySpace and ReverbNation.

Thanks to all who made it to Tribeca for the screenings last week -- next "Cupcake" stop -- Newport Film Festival!

Ljova & the Vjola Contraband
has been renamed to

LJOVA AND THE KONTRABAND.

As a result, our new web address has changed, to:

http://www.Ljova.com/kontraband

Please update your bookmarks.

Thank you!
--Ljova

- 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!

Ljova & the Vjola Contraband are featured in this week's edition of New York Magazine, in an article by Justin Davidson profiling several developments in New York's indie-classical scene. Read The Next Next Wave online.

Thank you to all who came out to the LJOVA AND THE VJOLA CONTRABAND performance with the BROOKLYN RIDER quartet at Joe's Pub! We had a great time, and will post some videos shortly.

Our next show in Manhattan is on May 10th, at the DROM

Thank you again!
--Ljova

Youth Without Youth, writer/director Francis Ford Coppola's first film in 10 years, opens in select US cities on December 14th. Based on a novella by the Romanian author Mircea Eliade, the film is "a love story wrapped in a mystery. Set in Europe before WWII, a timid professor is changed by a cataclysmic event and explores the mysteries of life."

The film features original music by Osvaldo Golijov, with additional orchestrations by Ljova. Moreover, Ljova's composition "Middle Village" (originally available on Ljova's debut CD), was re-recorded especially for Youth Without Youth, featuring Ljova on viola, and Hungarian cymbalom virtuoso, Kálmán Balogh!

(The song "Middle Village", with new lyrics by Sarah Gancher, will appear on the upcoming CD by Ljova & the Vjola Contraband and featuring Ljova's wife, the vocalist Inna Barmash, slated for release in spring/summer 2008. While you wait, there is a video of a live performance, here.)

YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH links:
-- Main IMDb page with cast and crew info
-- Showtimes in your area
-- Trailers
-- the Soundtrack CD is available for sale on Amazon.com

Enjoy the film!

(FFC, Osvaldo Golijov, Anahid Nazarian, Ljova, and most of the music recording team.)

Does it get better? Let's discuss! Three great bands, one low cover, all in a fabulous room with a humongous dance floor... this Thursday!

WORLD ON A STRING BAND
LJOVA AND THE VJOLA CONTRABAND
LUMINESCENT STRING ORCHESTRII

Thursday, December 6, at 8pm
Ukrainian East Village Restaurant
All details at http://Ljova.com/borscht

Special welcome to listeners of WNYC's New Sounds, where some of my music is being featured tonight. Here are some items of further entertainment:

CDs & tracks for sale:
1. VJOLA: WORLD ON FOUR STRINGS, is my debut CD, which includes "Ori's Fearful Symmetry" (get it via CDBaby or iTunes).
2. Three tracks from the upcoming album by my ensemble, Ljova and the Vjola Contraband: Untango, Tango Heavy and Szeki. (More info about the ensemble is here.)

Free Track for download: Heat Me Up!

Free videos online
1. Transience -- a new short film by Olga Rozanova, with music by Ljova
2. Live performance videos of Ljova, the Vjola Contraband, and related projects.
3. Zaznobila / Baro Foro -- superb music video featuring Ljova, his wife Inna Barmash, and the great Gypsy band Romashka.

In Person
Last but not least, I will be performing original and traditional Eastern-European music with the World on a String Band on November 7th, at 9pm at Goodbye Blue Monday, in Brooklyn. Please come by and say hi!

Please stay in touch!
Please join my mailing list and drop a line. You can also find me on MySpace, on Facebook, and on Last.fm. Material for Remixing is available on CCMixter.

Now, that's quite a menagerie of links - enjoy yourself!

--Ljova
(pictured: John Schaefer, host of WNYC's New Sounds and Soundcheck.)

Just out: "Transience", a gorgeous new short film directed by Olga Rozanova, with an original score by Ljova. The film is presently in the Ford Film Challenge, sponsored by Ford and the London Telegraph. It was shot in Greece, edited in Moscow, and the music is from New York.

Vote for "Transience" by November 11th, and you'll be entered to win a $4,000 home theater system!

==> To view the film and vote, visit:
http://fordfilmchallenge.telegraph.co.uk/site/

Click "View Entries", and scroll down for "Transience". View it on fullscreen - it's beautifully shot, and while the online sound is mediocre, hopefully soon you'll hear it in theaters, with 5.1 surround.

Thank you for viewing - and voting!
--Ljova

Inna & Ljova are back from honeymoon, and here are all the pictures.
(Wedding pictures are coming - soon.)

Honeymoon in: Stockholm Latvia Lithuania - Vilnius Lithuania - Kaunas Lithuania - Trakai Warsaw Budapest Croatia - Split Croatia - Korcula Croatia - Dubrovnik Venice

Inna and Ljova were married on August 12!

more pictures and videos are surely to come!
(This pic of Inna + Ljova & the Musicians, ©2007 by Jean Barmash)

The Inna and Ljova pre-wedding spectacular, at Joe's Pub.

Thank you for coming to our show!

As promised, here's a selection of free mp3s you can share with your friends.
Preview and download them here:

1. 1. Bagel On The Malecon

2. 2. Tango Heavy
3. 3. Tuchi v Golubom - Clouds of Blue (featuring Ljova's fiancee, Inna Barmash)
4. 4. Ana Ona (featuring Vieux Farka Touré, Inna, Ljova, and a mix by DJ MiNiMaL_aRT)

You may also enjoy listening to an interview/live performance by Ljova and the Vjola Contraband on WNYC's SOUNDCHECK with John Schaefer. (Stream the show above, or download the podcast here).

Here are a few more items you can purchase for a reasonable contribution:

• VJOLA: WORLD ON FOUR STRINGS, my debut CD (via CDBaby or iTunes)

• Two more mp3s from the "Serpent's Breath" soundtrack here:
  • 1. Untango
  • 2. Szeki.

Enjoy the music, and please keep in touch. If you haven't already, please join my mailing list via the Contact page to be notified of future shows, screenings, and mp3 downloads.

Thanks + best,
--Ljova

Join LJOVA AND THE VJOLA CONTRABAND on our upcoming shows:

==> Watch Ljova and the Vjola Contraband videos on YouTube

(Ljova's portrait by ©Bill Wadman)

Dear Lemon Lima, a short film I scored last fall, is having its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival this week -- see above for the trailer, and below for showtimes!

Saturday, April 28, 11:30 am, AKB-12 (AMC Kips Bay)
Sunday, April 29, 12:30 pm, AKB-13 (AMC Kips Bay)
Wednesday, May 2, 4:00 pm, CCW-02 (Clearview Chelsea West)
Friday, May 4, 4:30 pm, RG-11 (Regal Cinemas Battery Park Cinemas)
Saturday, May 5, 2:00 pm, RG-10 (Regal Cinemas Battery Park Cinemas)

to buy tickets, go here.

(for more on Ljova's film scores, visit the Filmography.

THE EDGE: Swinging Violas
by Alexander Gelfand
Jazziz Magazine (April 2007)

...This past January, the Russian-born, New York City-based violist Ljova and his Vjola Contraband drew a full house at Joe's Pub in Manhattan, forcing fans to stand three-deep at the room's swanky, dimly lit bar. Rarely have I seen so many young, attractive people pay to hear a band with no less than two violists not to mention an accordion player, an acoustic bassist, and a percussionist who bears a striking resemblance to Sideshow Bob. Yet there they were in astonishing numbers, knocking back $10 cocktails and whooping it up at the end of every tune.

Ljova, otherwise known as Lev Zhurbin, was born in Moscow in 1978 and emigrated to the States in 1990 with his parents, the composer Alexander Zhurbin and the writer Irena Ginzburg. He graduated from Juilliard and immediately took off in all directions. He has written music for folk, jazz, and classical ensembles; has arranged world-music material for marquee groups such as the Kronos Quartet and Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble; has composed music for film; and, with his fellow composers Ronen Landa and Jonathan Zalben, co-founded Mediant Music, a commercial-music production company that has worked on projects for the likes of Kraft and Coca-Cola.

The music that Ljova performs with his Vjola Contraband is deeply indebted to European folk traditions, though you'd be hard pressed to pinpoint a precise origin. Looking a bit like Maxwell Smart talking into his shoe-phone, the bespectacled 28-year old spoke directly into his instrument's microphone-pickup between tunes. But when he mentioned his "strong bias toward uneven meters," he wasn't just talking. The off-kilter rhythms he favors recall the asymmetrical dance beats of central and southeastern Europe, where time signatures tend to look like hat sizes (7/8, 13/8, 15/16). They tug and pull at you in strange and mysterious ways, as do Ljova's melodies, which have the tuneful, emotive quality of good pop.

Occasionally, he makes direct reference to his source material. One as-yet-unnamed tune was inspired by music Ljova heard in Hungary while traveling with his girlfriend, Inna Barmash, lead singer for the Gypsy-klezmer-funk band Romashka....

Back home, he sought to capture the unique rhythms employed in the Hungarian town of Szek, where the dancers appear to have what he jokingly called "a really organized way of stumbling from side to side." Despite the goofy introduction, the tune itself turned out to be a haunting drone-like lament that made me instantly homesick for my wife and child. Pathetic? Yes. But impressive, too - at least on Ljova's part. Music rarely punches my emotional buttons that way. And it almost never makes me feel anything remotely resembling lonesomeness or longing.

The emotion most often summoned by a Ljova performance, however, is elation. His tunes frequently display the kind of driving punch-drunk intensity that typifies Raymond Scott's music -- especially the "Powerhouse" theme that accompanies all of the assembly-line scenes in those old Warner Bros. cartoons. And Ljova's colleagues take obvious pleasure locking into the tricky grooves and intricate parts evident in so much of the band's repertoire.

Ljova repays the favor with beneficence on the bandstand. Given his own considerable skills, the Vjola Contraband could be just a star vehicle for its leader. But Ljova promotes many compositions by fellow band members. He appears to be equally happy backing a bandmate or creating a scene-stealing solo. On those rare occasions when he does grab the spotlight, his performance displays the same rhythmic and melodic flair as his writing. More typically, however, he simply plays lead on a composition then gracefully steps aside. I especially liked the results on "Tango for Patty," a showpiece for accordionist Patrick Farrell, who occasionally threw in some jazzy dissonance alongside his Eastern-European melodic inflections.

Perhaps Ljova's humility came from years spent playing second fiddle to violinists. Or maybe he already knows something that many musicians - and most people in general - only learn later in life: the more you give, the more you receive.

Watch a video of the Enso String Quartet performing Ljova's Bagel on the Malecon at the Library of Congress!

Click here to view!

For those of you couldn't attend the recent LJOVA AND THE VJOLA CONTRABAND performance at Joe's Pub in New York, or for those who were turned away (it was completely sold out!), here is a wonderful review from the Newsday music critic Justin Davidson - enjoy!

This eclectic violist's music is anything but plain folk
Justin Davidson, NEWSDAY
January 19, 2007

Quick, name a violist, any violist! There are plenty of marvelous ensemble players and two or three who live by the handful of oddball concertos, but nobody quite like the polymath Lev Zhurbin, who likes to be known by his diminutive, Ljova.

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.

Zhurbin and the group Vjola Contraband played the late set at Joe's Pub on Wednesday, and the crowded, overheated room was the perfect venue for young musicians still scouting out their own creative terrain. The violist, whose pleasantly geeky stage presence contrasted with the swagger of his sound, described traveling around Hungary and Transylvania in search of the perfect folk tune.

Bartók must have been on his mind, since the Hungarian composer was one of the first and most crucial ethnographers of Eastern Europe's rural traditions. But while Bartók scoured the countryside for the voice of his country's people, Zhurbin's spiritual home is really Queens, that living anthology of ethnic music. It's poetic, really, that a master of the middle-voiced instrument should write a soulful piece named for the neighborhood of Middle Village.

Like many of the most interesting and entrepreneurial musicians of his generation (he was born in 1978), Zhurbin is an avid collector of influences, beginning with his father, Alexander Zhurbin, the composer of a Russian rock-opera version of the Orpheus tale.

The band is likewise a purist's nightmare. The Swiss percussionist Mathias Kunzli sat astride a cajón, a beatable box of Peruvian birth, and tapped out rhythms that commuted between Havana and Sarajevo. The accordionist, Patrick Farrell, hails from Cajun country, and his chameleonic instrument now took on the hues of a Buenos Aires bandoneón, now a gypsy squeezebox.

Of course, you don't get good music just by raking together a pile of ethnic traditions and jumping in. What matters is the personality behind the mix and the technique to extract all the various essences. Ljova's command of the viola extends from the quiet melancholy with which he draws out a slow melody to high-speed flaming licks.

In concert, he mocked his own propensity for limping meters, intricate harmonies and moderate tempos. "I always feel like fast music goes too slowly," he said. I know what he means: When beats click by quickly, music can get simplified, like a car speeding boringly along a straight desert road. So, just to prove himself wrong, Zhurbin and the band batted out a dizzying, up-tempo piece with syncopations so insistent and a downbeat so shifty that it felt like it had reversed direction in mid-measure.

If this sounds like music you wish you hadn't missed, there's always his Ljova's new CD: "Vjola: World on Four Strings." [..and you can buy it here!]