Zventa Sventana

Zventa Sventana is a Russian musical project by Tina Kuznetsova and Yuri Usachyov, founder of another popular Russian pop act Gosti Iz Budushchego. In December 2019, Zventa Sventana was recognized as the Musician of the Year by MTV Russia.

The band revamps ethnic music and adapts it to the ears of a modern listener. Zventa Sventana tracks are based on ancient folk songs dated from the late 19^th century to the 1970s, collected by Russian folklore experts. The band works in a variety of styles, mixing Russian traditional folklore with electronica, indie pop, hip-hop, and other genres.

The project was founded in 2005. The concept was developed by Tina after her visit to a folklore festival in Moscow. Later, she met vocalist Alyona Romanova and Yuri Usachyov, who became the musical producer of the band. Tina and Alyona went on an expedition, looking through Russian villages and recording old women singing. Having returned to Moscow, the girls went deep into researching the songs collected by Soviet folklorists. The band reflected a world jazz sound in their debut CD, Stradaniya, in 2006. Traditional songs were fused with a bunch of genres, including world music, R&B, and soul. As later reported by TimeOut magazine, the release was acclaimed by Peter Gabriel. The same year, Zventa Sventana performed at the emerging Usadba Jazz festival.

Zventa Sventana played live across different festivals in Russia and other countries. In 2009, the band performed at The Day of Russia, as well as at the Eastern Europe Jazz Rock Festival, both in London. The next year, they participated in the Lady in Jazz Festival in St. Petersburg, and in 2011 became artists of the International Jazz Festival in Budapest, Hungary.

In 2012, the project was suspended due to Tina's participation in a TV show on Russian television, working on her solo projects, and collaborating with popular Russian band DDT.

In 2017, Zventa Sventana returned with Veronika Lileeva as the new vocalist. The band decided to step aside from the jazz sound of their first CD and start experimenting with electronic music. The project issued Muzha Doma Netu in 2019 and Na Gore Mak in 2021.