Evelyn [Evelina] Petrova

She has been my most significant musical discovery of the last year, and these days it is rare when I find something new in music which truly surprises me.

Dave Gelly put it this way:

At the Queen Elizabeth Hall, I found myself listening open-mouthed to a Russian woman playing the piano accordion while making wordless vocal sounds into a microphone. Her name was Evelina Petrova and the sounds varied from whoops and bird-like twitterings to a kind of demented lamentation. God knows what it was all about, but it had me transfixed.

What could sound less appealing than Russian accordion music?  I say imagine the devilish imp which sometimes runs around Stravinsky’s borrowings from Russian folk music, hook it up to an accordion, and pinch it repeatedly and irregularly.

Here is a good, descriptive review of her first album.  Here is her home page.  Here is a YouTube duet with piano, good but I prefer her solo.  Try this solo clip for her dirge side.  Here is another good (and more lively) solo clip.  Her CDs are on Amazon here, buy Living Water if you only get one.

She also has collaborated with Jethro Tull, or so I am told.