Evelina Petrova Trio

Listen to the album «First dance»

Evelina Petrova — accordion, vocals

Laura Ellestad, Sarah-Jane Summers -Hardanger fiddle, 5-string fiddle 

Andreas Rotevatn — trombone, electronics

The three of us met at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo during our graduate studies. Laura was studying folk music, Andreas was taking a degree in music performance technology, and Evelina was studying improvised music/jazz. Our first rehearsals resembled a lab in which we experimented with mixing elements from three different musical worlds. With each subsequent rehearsal we became more and more inspired and fascinated by the special sound our trio produced, and by the unusual and unique musical context we were being drawn into.

Together we created arrangements of several of Evelina’s original compositions, mixing them with traditional Russian songs, Norwegian Hardanger fiddle music, and elements of electronic music. Some of this music is presented on our debut album First dance, in addition to arrangements of pieces by composers Mikhail (Misha) Alperin and Roberto Bonati. The album was recorded live in the one-room studio at the Department of Traditional Arts and Traditional Music in Rauland, Norway.

photo by Ingvil Skeie Ljones

Trio created a multimedia project in which performed a live soundtrack to accompany scenes from the lm Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1965) by Soviet film director Sergei Parajanov. Parajanov, whose films invoke Ukrainian, Georgian, and Armenian folklore, was a unique voice within Soviet cinema. The original soundtrack for Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors was written by Ukrainian composer Myroslav Skoryk and it was reimagined by Evelina Petrova Trio through the improvisational folkloric aesthetic so the score illustrates the spirit of the world music of today. 

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