Theodor Bastard

The history of the band goes from the late 1990’s. The band works between genres that can be defined as world music, darkwave and trip-hop. The trademark of the band is the unique voice of Yana Veva and unemployable sound-producing by Fedor Svolotch.

Yana Veva has a rare vocal timbre and she uses a special vocal technique that refers to Arabic and Indian vocal tradition. Besides singing in THEODOR BASTARD Yana recorded an album with Stefan Hertrich (Darkseed, Betray my secrets) “Nour” in which all vocals were sung by Yana.

In 2004 the most famous album by THEODOR BASTARD “Pustota” was released by four labels: Fulldozer (Russia), Pandaimonium (Germany), Muzikal Yapim (Turkey), Art records (Mexico).

To support the album THEODOR BASTARD went on tour around Russia, Belgium, Germany and visited several festivals in Europe and Russia. Live performance is the strongest aspect of THEODOR BASTARD (totally there’ve been more than 300 concerts in band’s history). There are six musicians in the band who use plenty of electronic devices and special acoustic instruments like various ethnic percussions, kazu, saz and others.

As a result of that tour the band recorded a live album of previously unreleased songs – “Sueta” appeared in the end of 2006.

After that THEODOR BASTARD recorded an album “Beloe” which has two versions – one is experimental electronic and the other is rhythmic world music. “Beloe” reflected Fedor and Yana’s ardour for the Slavic mythology and Russian folk. This album was released by two labels: Q-Code Records (Russia) and Twilight Records (Argentina).

Apart of recording their albums, THEODOR BASTARD are always keeping in touch with musicians from other countries: collaboration with Martin Attkins from Pigface who released a track by THEODOR BASTARD at his label Invisible/Underground Inc.; with Peter Christopherson of Coil – the band recorded a version of “Love’s Secret Domain”; with Ethan Jordan, American saxophonist, playing live together in Brussel; and also THEODOR BASTARD was the support band for the Nine Inch Nails gig in St.Petersburg, August 2007.

Plenty of magazines wrote about the band, among them “Rolling stone”, “Time Out” and such European magazines as “Zillo”, “Orcus” and “Sonic seducer”. Songs by THEODOR BASTARD were on air of Austrian radio “FM 4″. THEODOR BASTARD music was used by Brazilian film director Gustavo Santos, and it was presented at San Paolo film festival.

The last single “Tapaсhula” has shown new interests of the band: the culture of Mesoamerica and rhythms of Africa. But along with that, along with breaking stylistic and conceptual limits, THEODOR BASTARD has always been true to themselves and known for their sound and approach.

In June 2011 the band successfully performed at the largest German festival WGT in Leipzig. The concert took place on one of the main stages of the festival, in Central Theater of Leipzig. Also, during the tour, the band gave solo concerts in Poland and Lithuania.

Recently, in November 2011 the release of “Remixed” on CD – the collection of remixes of THEODOR BASTARD’s songs – has taken place. Such artists from all over Europe as Neotropic, Animals on Wheels, Up,Bustle&Out (all three of them has signed on the label Ninja Tune), Scanner, State of Bengal, Geomatic, Flint Glass, and others took part in the work on the collection.

During all the fall and winter of 2011 THEODOR BASTARD are occupied with the recording of the new album which, as the musicians themselves admit, has become the most complicated and tedious in their career. The musicians had recorded the material in several studios at the same time. Many invited guests took part in the recording. On the album one can hear such instruments as udo, mbira, marimba, reco-reco, caxixi, ashiko, and spring drum. Fedor also used the instruments that he had invented and contrived with his own hand of improvised material such as coconuts, door springs, empty bottles, and plastic. The album will be the most lively and diverse in its contents in the entire history of the band. Also famous British band Fun-Da-Mental (in the collaboration with the Africans The Mighty Zulu Nation) and unique French singer Julien Jacob took part in the recording of the compositions for the album.

In February 2012 the main representatives of world music in Russia THEODOR BASTARD, after a break that lasted a year and a half, have returned on stage with the presentations of the new album “Oikoumene” in Russia and abroad. Concerts in Moscow and Saint Petersburg were sold out.

In May 2015, Theodor Bastard released the album Vetvi. Its name is a Latin transliteration of the Russian word for branches bearing in mind the branches of the World tree. The work on this album took three years. On the album we can hear many guest artists: Buryat singer Namgar Lhasaranova from the band Namgar, multi-instrumentalist Phillip Barsky (harp and cimbalom), Olga Glazova (she plays the world’s largest gusli), Chamber choir Lauda, vocalist Alexander Platonov (Ensemble of Ancient Peasant Music), Gulya Naumova (violin), Natalia Nazarova (cello). Russian horn, traditional Mongol violin morin khuur, ritual tibetan horn dungchen, ancient Russian gusli, cajón, jew’s harp, dulcimer (a species of zither) – this is incomplete list of instruments. This album is characterized by special atmosphere of northern dawn.

Members:

Fedor Svolotch - guitar, keyboard, programming

Yana Veva - vocal, flutes

Kusas - percussion

Andy Vladych - drums, percussion 

Alexey Kalinovskiy - keyboard

Theodor Bastard - Discography

Ветви (2015)

Пустота 2014 ремастер (2014)

Music for the empty spaces (2012)

Oikoumene (2012)

Remixed (2011)

Белое: Предчувствия и Сны (2009)

Белое: Ловля Злых Зверей (2008)

Суета (2008)

Пустота (2004)

Агорафобия (2000)