History Music / OtavaYo

* AnachronismStew; Happens a lot in the videos. A Soviet-era bus complete with inspiring pictures of Lenin is still picking people up and taking fares in modern St Petersburg; and several different Russias drawn from over a century collide and mix in ''Cossack's Lezginka''.

* RussianFashion: This is played both straight and for comic effect. The battered, dishevelled ''ushanka'' fur caps the band wear on stage and in videos, where the ear-peices flap around loosely as if they aren't sure if they want to be up or down, are a part of the "Russian Hillbilly" look of videos like '''Sumetskaya'' and stage appearances. However, traditional Russian costume is also played very straight and is part of the idealised arcadian Russia of the videos, Alexei Belkin's "idealised world to be shared".

Otava Yo are a [[UsefulNotes/{{Russia}} Russian]] folk rock band formed in the Leningrad/St Petersburg region in the early 2000's, specialising in reinterpreting old Russian ballads and folk songs, or else taking out-of-favour Soviet-era songs and reworking them for a post-Soviet Union age. To date they have released seven LP's and are developing a growing fanbase outside Russia. The band have also won plaudits for creative excellence in the production of videos for their keynote songs, winning Best Music Video awards at prestigious contests in the USA and Britain. The six [[note]]today in 2021, possibly seven [[/note]] core band members are multi-instrumental, some being able to play multiple instruments, and the band's sound is based on a combination of electric guitars, acoustic stringed and traditional Russian instruments. The group emerged from an older Russian folk collective called Reelroadb, augmented by instrumentalists who had learnt their craft as street buskers in Leningrad.

* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Fiddle players Yulia Usova and currently Lina Kolesnik each stood out as the only woman among five or six men.
** Averted in ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQGrqRkNpS8 Timonia]]'' - Yulia and Lina are both playing with the band in this video. From the band's anniversary concert in May 2021, Lina and Yulia are regularly performing together with the band, looking as if Lina is now a permanent member.

* [[ChekhovsGun Checkhov's Kazoo]]: * There is a custom in live gigs where a variation on a theme of Chekhov's Gun comes into play: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr6Gg2mcxLg&t=696s If a kazoo is on a musician's neck during a concert, it must be played.]]

* ShirtlessScene: * The video for ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JQ0xnJyb0A Sumetskaya]]'' features village men in the rural hinterland of Pskov (near St Petersburg) dancing, performing feats of strength, and play-fighting with and without their shirts on, while the band play music for them.

** ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQGrqRkNpS8 Timonia]]'' is a gentle giant who is manservant to an eccentric Baron and who has to do just about eveything on the estate. As he is also a bit clumsy and hamfisted, accidents happen.

* Jaungur Djushviili - percussion and drums
* Natalia Vizokikha - violin (2003-2011)

* Natalia Vizokikha - violin (2011-2013)

Ocassional members and band associates:-

* FolkRock: A Russian version, reviving old Russian folk-song in an idealised vision of city and country, or else repurposing the better Soviet-era songs with reworked lyrics and a new focus.

* GoneSwimmingClothesStolen: The song ''Girls Returning From A Pilgrimage'', in which Ignashka The thief does this to Vasilisa and her friends and gets a sound beating for his impudence from Vasilisa The Bloody Annoyed.

* {{Slapstick}}: the video for ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIa7ZfJUeGU The Street Cleaners]]'' is set in St Petersburg sometime pre-1914, and is deliberately presented as a silent movie comedy short, in which a LoveTriangle plays out while the band take on the roles of lowly snow-shovellers watching and acting as a chorus on the action. As SlapstickKnowsNoGender, indignities happen to the female lead.

* NostalgicNarrator: the video for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HtvH34CmZY Ой, Дуся, ой, Маруся (казачья лезгинка)]], or the ''Cossack's lezginka'', is seen from the point of view of an old man reliving his younger days. The song is a nostalgic call-back to an older Russia with the band and its associates alternating between modern dress and traditional costume; an old man restores a [=WW2=]-era Ural motorbike which is driven away by Dimitri S and Vassily T, who don [=WW2=] tankers' helmets in lieu of crash helmets. Then the video goes back further in time suggesting a period even earlier than the Soviet Union as two girls explore a derelict pre-Soviet mansion house, allowed to crumble into ruins. The two girls plus Yulia U are seen in traditional costume offering hospitality - then they fade like ghosts as a house door swings open behind them revealing not the building interior, but the open sea beyond the house. As the song fades and ends, the scene changes to the old man who is playing a worn and scratchy vinyl record on an old-style phonogram; the final choruses are heard repeating in a distant, muffled, scratchy way, suggesting he is alone in his workshop replaying his fading memories of a long time ago. The melancholy remains.

* NostalgicNarrator: the video for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HtvH34CmZY Ой, Дуся, ой, Маруся (казачья лезгинка)]], or the ''Cossack's lezginka'', is seen from the point of view of an old man reliving his younger days. The song is a nostalgic call-back to an older Russia with the band and its associates alternating between modern dress and traditional costume; an old man restores a [=WW2=]-era motorbike which is driven away by Dimitri S and Vassily T, who don [=WW2=] tankers' helmets in lieu of crash helmets. Then the video goes back further in time suggesting a period even earlier than the Soviet Union as two girls explore a derelict pre-Soviet mansion house, allowed to crumble into ruins. The two girls plus Yulia U are seen in traditional costume offering hospitality - then they fade like ghosts as a house door swings open behind them revealing not the building interior, but the open sea beyond the house. As the song fades and ends, the scene changes to the old man who is playing a worn and scratchy vinyl record on an old-style phonogram; the final choruses are heard repeating in a distant, muffled, scratchy way, suggesting he is alone in his workshop replaying his fading memories of a long time ago. The melancholy remains.

Otava Yo are a [[UsefulNotes/{{Russia}} Russian]] folk rock band formed in the Leningrad/St Petersburg region in the early 2000's, specialising in reinterpreting old Russian ballads and folk songs, or else taking out-of-favour Soviet-era songs and reworking them for a post-Soviet Union age. To date they have released seven LP's and are developing a growing fanbase outside Russia. The band have also won plaudits for creative excellence in the production of videos for their keynote songs, winning Best Music Video awards at prestigious contests in the USA and Britain. The six [[note]]today in 2021, possibly seven [[/note]] core band members are multi-instrumental, most being able to play multiple instruments, and the band's sound is based on a combination of electric guitars, acoustic stringed and traditional Russian instruments. The group emerged from an older Russian folk collective called Reelroadb, augmented by instrumentalists who had learnt their craft as street buskers in Leningrad.

* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Fiddle players Yulia Usova and currently Lina Kolesnik each stand out as the only woman among five or six men.

* Lina Kolesnik – vocals, violin (2019–2020[[note]] originally replacing Yulia Usova on her maternity leave but now Yulia is back, in 2021 the two are appearing on stage together [[/note]]

** Averted in ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQGrqRkNpS8 Timonia]]'' - Yulia and Lina are both playing with the band in this video. As of the band's anniversary concert in May 2021, Lina and Yulia have regularly performed together with the band, looking as if Lina is now permanent.

&* foreignCultureFetish: Otava Yo are as Russian as you will get - but when members of Music/ThePogues joined them onstage and Alexei Belkin started to sing Irish folk songs in a strong Russian accent - it got surreal. The band do tend towards the Celtic end of Europe and are not shy to throw in something Irish or Scottish.