- Melnitsa
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For the animation studio, see Melnitsa Animation Studio.
Мельница
Melnitsa
Natalia O'SheaBackground information Origin Moscow Genres Folk rock Years active 1999–present Labels Navigator Records Website melnitsa.net Melnitsa (Мельница, the Russian for windmill) - is a Russian folk rock band. It was founded in 1999 by Natalia "Hellawes" O'Shea and Alexey "Chus" Sapkov around the remnants of a local folk band 'Till Eulenspiegel'.
Contents
Style
The band fuses Russian, Irish and other North European folk influences with guitar pop/rock. Natalia "Hellawes" O'Shea, the lead singer and primary songwriter, is an academic and a specialist in medieval European languages and cultures by day. Her expertise lends the typically complex fantasy-laden lyrics a degree of authenticity.
History
For the first several years the band had worked the club and festival circuit, earned a bona fide cult status in the folk-n-fantasy teenage sub-culture and released an acoustic album Doroga Sna (Дорога Сна, The Road of Dream) featuring the underground hit Gorets (Горец, Highlander) set to the Russian translation of Robert Burns' Highland Harry Back Again.
Luck struck in 2005, when the lead single Nochnaya Kobyla (Ночная Кобыла, Night mare) off their second, more pop-infused album Pereval (Перевал, Mountain Pass) had been sneaked into rotation on Nashe Radio (the name and lyrics of the song are a complex allusion to Mara, a Norse mythical entity that caused nightmares). A grass-roots chart effort by fans propelled the song to #1 position in the "Best Of Year" chart, and the band to the small arena circuit (sparsely populated in Russia).
Their latest albums Zov Krovi (Зов Крови, Call of Blood) and Dikiye Travy (Дикие Травы, Wild Grasses, released early 2009) features the same lyrical and melody themes underscored by more rhythm section support from the band.
Discography
Original title Transliterated Title Translation Year of release Дорога Сна Doroga Sna The Road of Dream 2003 Master of the Mill (EP) Master of the Mill (EP) Master of the Mill (EP) 2004 Перевал Pereval Mountain Pass 2005 Зов Крови Zov Krovi Call of the Blood 2006 Дикие Травы Dikiye Travy Wild Grasses/Herbs 2009 Рождественские песни Rozdestvenckie pesni Christmas Songs 2011 There was also a compilation album, "The Best," in 2007.
Lineup
- Natalia "Hellawes" O'Shea - vocals, irish harp
- Alexey "Chus" Sapkov - producer
- Sergey Zaslavsky - flute
- Alexey Orlov - cello
- Alexey Kozhanov - bass
- Dmitry Frolov - drums
- Sergey Vishnyakov (on march 2010) — guitar
Former members include:
- Alevtina Leontyeva - vocals
- Alexander "Grendel" Stepanov - guitar
- Natalia Filatova - flute
- Natalia Kotlova - cello
- Evgeny Chesalov - bass
- Alexander Leer - drums
- Inessa Klubochkina - violin
External links
Categories:- Folk rock groups
- Russian rock music groups
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