The first Mongolian alternative rock band Nisvanis is coming to V-ROX

The first Mongolian alternative rock band Nisvanis will be the V-ROX’s headliner. It was founded in 1996. Vladivostok will hear the oldest Mongolian rockers at the international music festival for the first time.

At first the band consisted of the lead singer Enh-Amgalan Londjida (vocals, guitar), Darhanat Darhaa (bass), Anar Altangerel (drumms) and Hosbayar Sergelen (lead guitar).

Before the foundation of Nisvanis, Enh-Amgalan and Darhanbat played together in a pop rock band Yesterday&Today during musical college studying in 1993. In October 1995 they met a modern poet Galsansuh who became the first band’s manager. He suggested to work together, after that the musicians changed band’s genre and name, now it was called Nisvanis (this name was borrowed from the Mongolian film Ard Ayush). On April 9, 1996 Nisvanis performed in the grunge-rock style for the first time.

During the time of its existence the band released four albums and won Pentatonic Awards for Best Debut, Song of the Year – «Tesrelt» and «Ulaan heruulch», and Album of the Year – UFO.

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Our congratulations to the V-Rox’s mentor Ilya Lagutenko on receiving the title of the «Horonary citizen of Vladivostok»!

Today in Vladivostok Ilya Lagutenko was awarded with the attributes of the «Horonary citizen of Vladivostok» on the solemn assembly dedicated to the 156th birthday of the city.

The lead singer of the band «Mumiy Troll» was welcomed with loud applauses when he was going up to the stage of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre. The mentor of V-Rox got the award ribbon, the certificate, the commemorative medal and the identification document from the chairperson of the City Duma Elena Novitskaya and the interim major of Vladivostok Konstantin Loboda.

Ilya Lagutenko: «This is an extraordinary day for such a dreamer like me. I could not even imagine that. I think, it is a miracle for the most of people in this hall to see me in a bit different role. But, as it is said, poets, musicians and artists predestine the future in their fantasies. That’s the future of that Vladivostok-3000. Everyone have their own idea of it and, maybe, it is impossible to build it without taking a look into the future».

At the end of his speech the mentor of V-Rox said hello to his grandmother Veronica Iosifovna Tur, who has her own idea of Vladivostok-3000, too, and who is celebrating her 93rd birthday this year. After that Ilya Lagutenko rephrased his song «Fantastika», singing «Don’t we stay together for all time, for all ti-i-ime».

Photo: Yury Smityuk (TASS)

The Australian musician and singer Joel Sarakula will be the headliner of V-ROX

The Australian-British musician Joel Sarakula, the producer and the performer of heartful songs in the style of indie pop, will sing at V-Rox in Vladivostok.

He travels around the world in pursuit of inspiration, receiving new feelings and introducing them into his music. You can find the reflection of Joel’s musical outlook in his works: from avant-garde to legends of soul and pop, and also the references to contemporaries Beck Hansen, Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Erlend Øye.

The songs from his debut British album The Golden Age got into the constant air-time of BBC Radio 2, BBC 6, BBC London, XFM, Q Radio and Absolute Music and of radio stations in other countries. Joel Sarakula is a participant of festivals and club events in Great Britain, Europe and Australia, including Scala, Latitude, The Great Escape, and Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg.

Joel’s single «Northern Soul» got more than 150,000 views in the Internet only for the first months after the post. BBC 6 Music called his last album Imposter, released in 2015, fabulous and compared it with Bowie’s works, also marked really catchy and bold music.

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Vladivostok will listen to «Juniors of V-Rox» from Primorye on July, 10 (Submission is on)

The V-ROX festival introduces «Juniors of V-ROX» – the elimination round for children’s musical groups which will be held on the 10th of July, 2016, Vladivostok. The concerts are starting at 13:00 at the site of amphitheatre of Sportivnaya Gavan.

The project’s aim is to turn the young generation to creative undertakings, to give them a possibility to reveal their talents on the big stage, to guide them to forward movement and to prove that their hard work in this field is not useless.

The participants of the project are groups and single performers (aged 10-17) from Primorye. Artistic directors over the age of 17 are also allowed to be members of groups. Following the results of «Juniors», the V-ROX organizing committee will choose four best groups which will take part in the festival on August, 21.

You can send an application and consult on the project «Juniors of V-ROX» with the coordinator Pavel Lopatin by phone 8 (924) 721-80-95. The participants must send their recordings, some photos and the groups’ story on email 12@2016.vrox.org.

The Ural schoolgirl and the Internet phenomenon Liza Monetochka will perform at V-ROX

The Ural Internet star Liza Monetochka will perform at V-Rox this year. The secondary school student accepted the invitation from the festival’s mentor Ilya Lagutenko and will play her songs in Vladivostok for the first time.

Before that Liza from Ekaterinburg was just studying in the 11th grade, preparing for Unified State Exam and composing simple and naive songs about her friends, classmates, Gosha Rubchinsky and the Internet, which rapidly made her famous and made twice older people argue about Monetochka’s songs. For few days the girl blew the Internet away with her songs that she posted in social media. She is called nearly the main sensation of 2016.

«I’ve got my own agency net in the Urals. Sasha Gagarin («Sansara») told me about Monetochka. I would be glad if Liza would come to Vladivostok to our V-Rox festival this year. This is the main idea of the festival, the moment of discovery, including the turn of virtual stories into the real ones. We’ve got very grateful audience», Ilya Lagutenko said.

It is possible to find out the upcoming participants of the V-Rox festival of this year every week on the web-site. Now the major headliners of the main summer music event are known. TsuShiMaMiRe (Japan), Joel Sarakula (Australia), Nisvanis (Mongolia), Burn the Ballroom (the USA), Zodiac (Latvia) are among them.

An American rock band Burn the Ballroom to headline V-ROX music festival

Burn the Ballroom is a rock project out of northern Virginia, USA, coming to V-ROX through the support of the U.S Consulate General, Vladivostok. Powerful instrumentation and majestic melodies and lyrics blur the lines between such music styles as anthem, rock, punk, alternative, and pop.

Lead singer of the band, Alan Gant, opted for rock music after studying piano and the violin. He spent his youth in Paris, where he started performing as a singer and guitarist in various bands and solo.

Drummer Jack Ivins not only pounds away on drums but also creates real theater at concerts, saying he performs “with the same commitment and intensity as when playing rugby and football for James Madison University.”

Guitarist Sterling Pearson – AKA “Sound Puncher” – “terrifies the masses was monstrous guitar leads,” at talent honed in LA clubs where he started his music career by experimenting in bands of many different music styles.

Tuomas Kasselgaard Easton plays keytar and brings the aesthetics of Scandinavian melodies and western classical music to the band’s sound. Tuomas also introduced bassist Josh Finks to the band, who has happily embodied Burn the Ballroom’s credo to “combine the modern and classical to achieve a rock sound spanning genres and eras.”

Burn the Ballroom

The Latvian band “Zodiac” will perform at the fourth edition of the V-ROX

The Latvian band “Zodiac” and their leader Janis Lusens will perform at the fourth edition of the V-ROX International Music Festival in Vladivostok. They are one of the pioneers of global “space music” and are very familiar to all generations.

For the first time ever the people of the Far East region will see the live performance of the legendary collective.

According to the figures, “Melodia” music label has sold millions of copies of “Zodiac” records back in the USSR time. Their debut album “Disco Alliance” was released in 1980 and spanning a catalogue up until 1988 but in 1990 the band stopped any recordings and performances; however in 2015 they have returned back to their true existence.

Today, “Zodiac” is still a young, aspiring and progressive group of talented musicians. Although the band has changed its lineup the leader and producer is still the same: Janis Lusens Snr – the icon of classic electronic music. Other musicians in the band are no older than 35 years and his son Janis Jnr is the guitarist of the band.

“Zodiac” – the group which has not stayed in the past but now continues to create new and even more interesting music.

Janis Lusens Snr has earned great respect as a person and as a musician. Today, “Zodiac” has a great future ahead. They are not following any particular trend but instead create their own unique style. Above all politics and any boundaries, Janis Lusens’ music shows the real Latvia, which we saw in the 80’s – beautiful and unique with kind, talented people.

Performance of “Zodiac” in the Far East will be held for the first time. All compositions will be played live and the festival goers can expect possible surprises with various improvisations including a brand new track ‘Ajro’ from their forthcoming album.