Enter The Fadolín – Behind The Tracks – Playground Móòd

Hello friends – I’m back with another installment of “Behind the Tracks“, a series of stories behind the music on my new album “Enter The Fadolín” (available now as a download, as a home-made autographed CD-R, and a collection of sheet music).

This time it’s about a track called “Playground Móòd” — hear it below:

“Playground Móòd” was improvised as a sketch on a school playground in Parsippany NJ, in the (relatively) early days of the pandemic, on April 25 2020. Schools were out, the streets deserted — that day, New York City recorded nearly 400 tragic COVID-related deaths. At the city’s playgrounds, basketball hoops were dismantled to encourage social distancing — but in suburban New Jersey, it was still possible to find a hoop and a quiet place to play, for the moment. My wife and I were trying to find opportunities for our kids to stay physically active, while I was looking for ways to remain creative and to practice my new fadolín. In the original sketch, below, you can hear our kids bouncing a basketball in the background, and people coming up to me saying “we’ve never seen a real violin before” — little did they know that it was a fadolín, but…

Months later, playing this tune again in our neighborhood on the Upper West Side, I found ways to expand it beyond its original 1-minute length. I feel that the longer version pays some hommage to the work of Alfred Schnittke, a composer I revere.

Here’s a sketch of “Playground Móòd” as it was posted to instagram, below:

Enjoy and thank you!

–Ljova

||> Check out other posts in the “Behind the Tracks” series, listen to the entire album, order a homemade autographed CD-R or download the sheet music.

||> See a playlist videos of Ljova’s new music released during the COVID-19 pandemic.
||> Support Ljova’s ongoing work of creating new music for the fadolín — join his Patreon community for exclusives and updates! Thank you for your support.