The band Otava Yo was born spontaneously around 2003 from a group of professional folk musicians in St. Petersburg, Russia. They wanted to create new interpretations of Russian folk music, lpen to everyone with open ears, and to revive neglected tunes from bygone times. Their first album 'By the Pharmacy' was released in 2006. After experimenting for three years, the band released their second album 'Once Upon a Time' in 2009, and here their notion of Russian Beat really came to life. The next album 'Christmas,' an exquisitely poetic album of traditional Christmas songs, released in 2011, was very different. And in 2013, the album 'What are Those for Songs' further enriched their palette with wonderfully uplifting music. They've been called "modern buffoons" and the music has been described as "communal groove." Both are true. Otava Yo play their music in a vigorous manner with uninhibited humor, mixing fierily-played traditional Russian instruments with a look straight out of Gogol- one which simultaneously frightens and attracts tourists. Otava Yo shatter any preconception that Russian folk music is flat and undanceable.