Ива Нова, 24 May 2023

Ива Нова (Iva Nova) was formed in St.Petersburg, Russia in 2002, when five young Russian ladies met to create a new collective of musicians.

All of them had had vast experience of playing at gigs with various groups and having found themselves to be really kindred souls, they started off their joint career, naturally and courageously combining the tunes and instrumentation of traditional Slavonic music with the energy and attitude of punk.

Their original songs, sung by Vera Ogareva, with tunes and lyrics based on the riches of the folklore, are catchy and sensitive. Fuzzy dirt-simple guitar riffs (Inna Lishenkevich) and explosively frenetic percussion (Katherina Fedorova) supported by the poignant bass (Elena Novikova) and the energy of jazzy Russian accordion (Elena Zhornik) fill their performance with both rural restlessness and urban craziness.

Iva Nova's sound is driving and powerful, their live acting is cheerful and often humorous: this high-spirited music will hardly leave anybody untouched. That is perfectly proved by Iva Nova's admirable gigs in Russia and abroad (Finland, Germany, Holland) and their first album having the name of the band Ива Нова issued in November 2003.