Live review: Otava Yo at RNCM

By Ellie Sherwood

What do you expect from a performance when the first thing you see on stage is a clothes line, twenty different instruments, and a wooden duck statue? Otava Yo obviously like to entertain their audience, and tonight’s gig at RNCM was no exception.

The 6-piece band from St Petersburg played their fusion of Russian folk song and contemporary music with such energy and wit, whilst skilfully revealing their lively, extraordinary, and romantic colours. Their main motive is clear: to communicate the loss of tradition and dying of Russian folk songs, which were once so integral to Russian life. Their way of reviving this tradition is to meld the past and the present by mixing Russian folk songs with a funky bass, electric guitar, zesty riffs, and off-beat rhythms, making it very hard to not immediately get up and dance (although I’m sure this is what happens at plenty of their concerts).

Otava Yo definitely made use of the twenty different instruments on stage, which ranged from wooden spoons to bagpipes. One of my favourite parts of the performance was the way the two violins were used: often in harmony, playing a beautiful folk song melody whilst the electric instruments accompanied, bringing the songs forward into the 21stcentury.

The musicians are clearly passionate about the importance of tradition, and their commitment to reviving their folk music in such a spirited way is extremely powerful. Otava Yo’s music left the audience feeling both nostalgic for the past and excited about the present – a rare sentiment that only a band of such zeal, dedication, and talent can inspire.

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About grass, goats and lost bagpipes: Q&A with Otava Yo

What does your band name Otava Yo mean? 
Otava is an old agricultural term, which in Russian means 'after grass' – during summer time if you mow the grass, after couple of weeks new grass (fresh and green) will grow on the same place. To be honest not everybody in Russia knows this word. (‘yo’ is simply the transliteration of the unique Russian letter ё)

Your music has been described as Russian Beat. Can you explain? 
This description was created during our tour in Mexico in 2010. We had just recorded our first album “Once upon a time” on which for the first time we tried playing famous Russian songs in very danceable style. At a press-conference at a big world music festival a journalist asked how we would describe our music style. So the answer came to my mind straight away: Russian Beat, as an analogy to Balkan Beat (everybody knows what does it means). We try to play modern Russian folk music, based on Russian traditional music, but transformed by our minds as cosmopolitan citizens. We are trying to play current folk music, not something reconstructed. And we try to keep it alive, and not hide it in an old cozy museum.

You are from the city of St Petersburg – Can you describe your favorite music club and the music scene there? 
St Petersburg is a very big city - there are a lot of music clubs and we have played almost everywhere. Like everywhere else music clubs are full of people who come to have fun. 10 years ago we had even more clubs and more people interested in partying in clubs. Now there are many more things to do in the city besides that, so clubs have to make more of an effort to attract their audience. I am not sure I have a favorite club in the city but there are couple of places where I like to play – the reopened “Aurora” concert hall and the “Waiting Hall” club in the old train station building. I have to admit I don’t go much to clubs unless I’m playing there.

You revive old tunes – what is special about them and why do these appeal to you? 
I really like to listen to traditional tunes myself. There is something special in them which has kept them alive for centuries and will keep them fresh and alive ever longer and longer. I suppose it is accumulated spirituality. Our forefathers kept those tunes for us, they loved them, played them, transformed them and as the result those tunes got a perfect form now. When you play such tunes with proper attitude you can feel something very important - these tunes make you feel better. And the biggest challenge for us as the musicians is to try and compose something which might sound like a traditional tune. I hope you can find this in some of our songs.

Humour is a big part of your show (you even received an award from the Bratislava Humour Academy!)– do you think the English will get your jokes? 
I hope so! The famous British sense of humour (at least our impression of it) feels quite close to us. I love Monty Python and all that black humour style. In our jokes we try to be understandable to everybody and in the same time to stay natural, not to pretend being just comedians. Our music is about much more than just the jokes, but of course we enjoy to make people smile and have fun - I think it fits folk music very well.

You play some traditional Russian instruments – can you describe them? 
First of all I would like to mention the gusli – the Russian village harp or psalterion. I love this instrument. It is quite simple, but in the same time it gives a lot of possibilities for a musician playing it. Also we have the zhaleika - it could be described like the chanter of a bagpipe [without the bellows]. We don’t have Russian bagpipes anymore, they are totally gone. But the zhaleika is very close to a chanter of a Russian bagpipe. Centuries ago shepherds used zhaleikas for communicating with goats and other livestock. Beside that our fiddler Dima plays an authentic Russian village style which together with the more classical style of our second violinist Julia gives a very interesting sound to our songs.

You have played to audiences all over the world – where is the best audience? 
To be honest almost everywhere we are well received by the audience. People in Latvia and Estonia are very responsive to our music (probably because we show them something which is totally different to what they were taught as Russian folk music during Soviet Union times), we had some great festival experiences in Western Europe, and of course at home.

Will you try to teach the English audiences some Russian? What do you want them to learn from Otava Yo? 
Russian is quite a difficult language to learn. Usually people catch simple words as vodka or privet (hello). So I don’t think the audience will remember any of the Russian words we might sing or say, but I don’t think this matters. What is more important: We want to show that sometimes impressions of somebody else’s music can be very mistaken. We know that all over the world everybody knows there is a very big country called Russia, but almost nobody knows anything about our real music culture, or has the wrong impression about. So our goal is to show the world that there is something else that exists in Russia and it is full of life and energy.

On tour next: Russian post-folk with Otava Yo

Steaming out of St Petersburg in white vests, peasant dress, and ushankas on head with ear-flaps akimbo, Otava Yo bring the abandoned traditions of Russian folksong to the 21st century. They offer a glimpse into life in an old Russian village, replete with romance, melancholy and merrymaking, a fierce sense of pride and a good dose of surreal humour. With lyrical gusil, global guitar, wailing bagpipes, expert fiddle-scraping, pumping bass and pounding drum, their songs of rural passions, heroic sailors, goats and pancakes are delivered with casual wit playful imagination. They don’t care much about convention: “if you find that you hear something you do not expect to hear, that's exactly what we wanted.” They have performed at major European folk festivals and as far afield as Mexico and India, and received an award from the Bratislava Humour Academy; it only seems natural to take on charming British audiences next.
Surreal, humorous and danceable – if you liked the Yiddish Twist Orchestra you’ll love this!