the Turquoise Ether Magazine’s mission is to publish independent critical reviews of promising artists and musicians from over The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)

Turquoise #11 — Kristina Sun (Russia)

Kristina Sun is a young and talented drummer from Russia. She participates in international music festivals (Drummers United, Parade of percussion instruments, Bereg Maugli), attends masterclasses of famous virtuoso drummers (Eloy Casagrande, Michael Schack, Kaz Rodriguez, Jojo Mayer, Damien Schmitt), has experience working in bands in different musical styles (jazz, rock, and progressive metal), teaches, records covers of world-famous and emerging bands (The Beatles, Leprous, Deftones, The Chainsmokers, Tesseract, James Brown), works as a session musician, and since 2018, she has been the creator of street music performances. Kristina has an unsurpassed sense of rhythm, the ability to hear music and create it, improvise, and has first-class sound production.

She is engaged in the constant development of her professional qualities, such as entrepreneurship and passion for music.

Kristina tends to work in multiple genres. She is equally masterful in both traditional musical directions, as well as modern and alternative ones. She masterfully combines virtuosic bass drum passages typical of avant-garde metal and complex jazz swing, polyrhythm and groove, simple beats and unique appoggiaturas. Kristina’s musical practice expands the possibilities of using a drum kit in modern music.

Her drum cover of “Straight Lines” by the VOLA band is of particular interest. Kristina demonstrates a vivid stage image, a clear sense of rhythm, the use of various techniques that bring variety to the original arrangement. Unsurprisingly, this work won a prize as one of the best covers (the top three covers from representatives of France and Bahrain). 67 people from 19 countries took part in this competition (France, Great Britain, USA, Bahrain, Guatemala, Spain, Sweden, Greece, Ukraine, Macedonia, Finland, Hungary, Poland, Germany, Brazil, Italy, Austria, Canada, Australia).

VOLA conducted similar projects: Head mounted sideways and 24 light years remix (2020), but they decided to create a mash-up with participation from fans of their work with the Straight Lines project (2021)

Kristina is a promising musician actively developing in the international arena and we are sure that in the near future she will create many more reasons to write about her.

A short story about who VOLA are and why you should get acquainted with their work

VOLA is a Danish progressive metal band formed in Copenhagen in 2006.

Prog magazine praised their “widescreen heavy stadium prog”, Metal Hammer rejoiced at their “genre-defying, heavy riffs, dark, ambient soundscapes and guttural grooves”, while The UK’s largest daily newspaper The Sun admired their ability to “mix genres”. The single “Stray The Skies” was included in the playlist of both Kerrang! Radio and Scuzz TV.

They ended 2017 with a Limelight Award nomination at the Progressive Music Awards.

VOLA’s second album “Applause of A Distant Crowd” was released on October 12, 2018 via Mascot Records. Mastered by Andy Van Dette (Porcupine Tree, Steven Wilson, Devin Townsend).

After playing 51 concerts across Europe on a tour supporting both Monuments and Haken, they went straight to the festival tour with outstanding performances at Euroblast (Germany), Bucovina Rock Castle (Romania), Ramblin' Man Fair (UK). This was followed by concerts in support of Anathema in their hometown in Liverpool, UK, and two concerts with Dream Theater in Germany.

In addition, the band performed live for the first time at the music awards ceremony of the popular Danish music magazine GAFFA’s Music Awards in early 2020.

Took part in festivals: Tech-Fest (The UK), Complexity Fest (NL), Arctangent (The UK), Euroblast (Germany), Bloodstock open air (The UK), Radar (The UK), Bucovina rock castle (Romania), Ramblin' Man Fair (The UK), Rockaue Open Air (DL), Take Over Daze (DL).

VOLA shared the stage with such artists as: Tesseract, Russian Circles, Gojira, Nightwish, Monuments, Animals as Leaders, Between the Buried and Me, Betrayal of the Martyrs, Anathema, Leper, Agent Fresco.

Author ✍️ Anton Medvedev for Turquoise Ether Magazine