Zventa Sventana
Zventa Sventana is the Russian musical project by Tina Kuznetsova and Yuri Usachyov, founder of another popular Russian pop act Gosti Iz Buduschego. In December 2019 Zventa Sventana was recognized as the Musician of the Year by MTV Russia.
The band revamps ethnics and adapts it to the ears of a modern listener. Zventa Sventata tracks are based on the ancient folk songs dated from late 19th century to 1970s' collected by the Russian folklore experts. The band works in a variety of styles, mixing Russian traditional folklore with electronica, indie pop, hip-hop, and other genres.
The project was founded in 2005. The concept was developed by Tina after her visit at the folklore festival in Moscow. Later she met vocalist Alyona Romanova and Yuri Usachyov who became the musical producer of the band. Tina and Alyona went on the expedition, looking through Russian villages and recording old women’ singing. Having returned to Moscow, the girls went deep into researching the songs collected by Soviet folklorists. The band reflected world jazz sound in their debut CD Stradaniya in 2006. Traditional songs were fused with a bunch of genres, including world music, r&b, and soul. As later reported by Timeout magazine, the release was acclaimed by Peter Gabriel. The same year Zventa Sventana performed at emerging Usadba Jazz festival.
Zventa Sventana played live across different festivals in Russia and other countries. In 2009 the band performed at The Day of Russia, as well as at Eastern Europe Jazz Rock Festival, both in London. The next year they participated in Lady in Jazz Festival in St. Petersburg, and in 2011 became the artists of the International Jazz Festival in Budapest, Hungary.
In 2012 the project was suspended due to Tina's participation in a TV show on Russian television, working on her solo projects and collaborating with popular Russian band DDT.
In 2017 Zventa Sventana returned with Veronika Lileeva as the new vocalist. The band decided to step aside from the jazz sound of their first CD and start some experiments with electronic music. The project issued Muzha Doma Netu in 2019 and Na Gore Mak in 2021.
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