World music, Urban folk, Unza unza…

Sasha Pushkin – Guitar, Voice, Kazu
Souleymane Toure – Drums, Percussion, Voice
Oleg Matrosov – Balalaika, Tzura, Voice
 
Guest musicians Germany:
 
Jim Lametta (Tobias Vethake) – Mandolin, Electronics, Voice
Andre Sur´ - Violin
Vladis Love – Violin
Dr. Bajan – Bajan, voice
Atilla Szibi - Drums
Famson – Percussion
Veranika Kruhlova – Voice
Andreas Weiser  – Percussion
 
Moscow formation (special thanks !):
 
Vladimir - Drums
Vladimir - Percussion
Bulat - Violin
Ilya - Guitar
Elena Stepanova – Moscow menagement
 
Guest musicians London (special thanks !):
 
Lu Edmonds – Cumbus
Karim Dellali – Darbuka. Dumbak , very low voice
Yazid Fentazi – Oud

Here’s the ingredients for the PUSHKIN FUNNPLUGGED sound:

Make a drum set out of Djembe, Darabuka and Talking Drums.
Take  a very, very small guitar, Tzura, Balalaika, African and oriental drums.

Just for fun.

Play  Greek Tzura Russian melodies. Play one Russian Balalaika in American 30’s Swing style. And just sing whatever you feel. Take Russian, English, German or any African language you speak. Take European 3/4 and African 6/8. Take Russian  2/4 and German 4/4.

Just for fun.

Do you smoke Papirosa? Do you drink Vodka? It helps your voice expression.
Have you been to Abijan or Odessa? It helps  your body to groove.
Have you been to Machorka – Tabakistan? It helps your eyes to smile.
Be sad at 140 BPM and funny at 60 BPM.

So, now just throw all that stuff together in one big pot, et voilà.

And keep it simple. Very, very simple.

Just for fun.

Now take your body in your hands, make the beat move your feet,
shake the brain out of your ears and make your hands clap.

Just for fun.

Is it Folk Rock? Is it World fusion? Is it Blatniak?

(At least 100,000,000 Russians know what “Blatniak” means)

No it´s  just Pushkin Funplugged!!

3 members of Psycho-Active-Ethno-Industrial group Pushkin Boom Beat have made this project.

Just for fun.

Here they are:

Sasha Pushkin (Russia)  Voice,  Guitar, Kazu
Sound artist and conceptualist. Endless collaborator in different art and music fields Transformable vocalist. Founder and creative source of  Pushkin Funplugged and many other projects. A charismatic stage presence of undiminished energy.

Souleymane Toure (Ivory Coast)  Djembe, Tarabuka, Talking Drums, Drums, Bambaru,

Versatile veteran drummer from Ivory Coast. His beat has powered a legendary orchestra from Abijan and brought Alpha Blondy to the charts. He worked with Manu Dibango and 1001 others. A founder of Academy Percussion and grand patriarch of Berlin´s percussionists.

Oleg Matrosov (Machorka – Tabakistan)    Sura, Balalaika, Voice
Slavic soul. German head. An evocative player of many string instruments in many styles. Known to German folk / world music lovers as the leader and singer of Apparatschik and Orchestra Bakul. Electronics maker and fun seeker. 

See you later!

Little bit of a history:

The idea of this project came spontaneously, when Sasha was glancing through a musical instruments catalogue and saw a very small guitar – APXT1N from Yamaha. And then he just got an idea of a group, playing Russian Urban Roots based Folk music mixed with unknown for that style Afro – Arabic rhythms… A great groove, but made by small guitar and simple instruments. Like home made & hand made music… And after a long period of Rock, Electroinic, and Jazz experiments Sasha wanted to relax by playing a music, which is so easy to play. Because it´s always there, it´s in the blood. Since childhood.
Time ago Sasha was sometimes a guest singer by “Apparatchik”, a  German – legend group, who plays Russian Volx - Rock Music. My be he got this inspiration and got back to Russian Roots also through Germans? Or may be it was just a right time to do it?
Talking about that roots we can name the ones who could influence “Pushkin Funplugged” style: Arkadiy Severnyi, Leonid Utyosov, Vladimir Vysotski and of course many more… 

Yamaha APXT1N
Style: 6 string
Finish: Natural
Fretboard: Indian Rosewood
Neck: Maple
Body: Not Available
Top: Spruce

This is maybe the only project, where Sasha also plays music written by others. Except piano playing, where anything is possible.

MP3s

BERIOZA, mp3, 697 kb ......>>>
HOP PA JEVROPA, mp3, 606 kb......>>>
NA SOPKAX, mp3, 916 kb......>>>
NEVER MORE, mp3, 658 kb......>>>
PARAVOZ, mp3, 805 kb......>>>
SECOND GIRL, mp3, 705 kb......>>>
TANZSCHULE, mp3, 623 kb......>>>
TOVARITSCH, mp3, 680 kb......>>>
U SAMOVARA, mp3, 442 kb......>>>
VO KUZNITZE VERSE, mp3, 717 kb......>>>
VO KUZNITZE, mp3, 534 kb......>>>
VORON, mp3, 568 kb......>>>

PUSHKIN FUNPLUGGED

FUNKY FOLK ? ETHNO FUN ? URBAN VOLK ? BLATNIAK ? WORLD MUSIC ?

Souleymane Toure (Drums, Percussion)
Sasha Pushkinт (Guitar, Voice, Kazu)
Vladis Love (Violine, Voice) 

„Der Virtuose Pushkin wirkte wie ein an die Spitze stürmender Showmaster ...  Nach den ersten Paar Takten war die Halle zum bersten voll ... und kein Einziger verliess den Raum vor dem Ende ...“
                                                                                                                                                 Freie Presse

Was passiert, wenn man Jahrhunderte altes russisches Liedgut mit modernen Rhythmen aufmischt? Wenn eine rasende Balalaika in Banjomanier einen Gesang im Stile Odessas der 50er Jahre begleitet? Sasha Pushkin aus St. Petersburg und seine Musikerkollegen führen es in ihrem Funplugged-Psrojekt vor. Mit rauer Wodka-Stimme, reichlich Ironie und atemberaubenden Tempi treiben sie der russischen Seele die Melancholie aus. Musiker sorgen dabei mit typischen Instrumenten ihrer Heimat für die frappierenden musikalischen Quertreibereien.

Ob Expressiv und Rhythmisch, Soft und Einfühlsam, Traurige Romanzen und Feurige Tanzschtucke...
Ob mit Gesang, Geige, Balalaika, Bajan, Mandoline, Gitarre und Schlagzeug, Percussion oder auch ohne...
Und Ob es„Blatniak“(was 90% der Russen im Blut haben), Volkrock oder Weltmusik ist,  das entscheidet derjenige,
der vor der Bühne gerade tanzt !

Presse: Die Welt, Berliner Morgenpost, Zitty, Tip, Folk-Michel, Berliner Zeitung, TAZ, BZ, Volker, Tagesspiegel, Berliner Abendblatt, Intro, Guide, Freie Presse, Jazzthetik, Vogue, Hi Fi Music, ... TV:  NTV, ORB, OKB, SFB, RBB, ARD, DW...
Radio: WDR 5, WDR Funkhaus Europa, SFB 4 Multi Kulti, Radio Brandenburg, Kiss FM, MDR Sputnik, Deutschland Radio, Radio Kultur, RBB, NDR Radio Globo, KSFR Santa Fe Community radio, BBC .