Dobranotch

Oleg Dobrinski - clarinet, bagpipes, flutes, gousli, balalaika, vocals
Dmitri Hramzov - violin, percussion, vocals
Dmitri Shikhardine - fiddle, gousli, vocals
Natasha Antonova - vocals and percussion

"Dobranotch" was founded in 1997, being formed in France by three Russian musicians from St. Petersburg. As the group comment their style, "at the beginning we played a lot of Celtic music with some medieval repertoire, but now we are more interested in our own cultural heritage." Over time, the group has come to gradually look more to the East. until now when they perform mainly old Russian songs and Balkan music. There were few changes also in the cast. Most of us do not have formal musical education. Our main sources are people we meet, but some books and tapes as well.

The group aims at bringing early music of the Eastern countries (i.e. Slavs and the neighbouring peoples) alive, but doing this in such a way that the young people of our days can resonate with it and understand it. Dobranotch use only acoustic instruments. All the pieces they perform are traditional.