Inna Zhelannaya

Inna Yurievna Zhelannaya (, February 20, 1965, Moscow) is a Russian singer-songwriter, best known as a frontwoman of the folk band Farlanders (1994-2004).

Biography Inna Zhelannaya was born in Moscow and spent her childhood years in Zelenograd, where she studied at a musical school and sang in a choir led by her mother, Alla Yosifovna. After the graduation she joined the musical college in Elista, Kalmykia, then returned to Moscow to continue her education. As a student, she got interested in rock music and started writing her own songs.

Career In 1985, Zhelannaya formed her first band, Focus, with Eduard Vokhmyanin. Two years later she became the leader of her own group, M-Depo. In 1989, Zhelannaya joined the well-known Moscow band Alliance and started collaborating with author and multi-instrumentalist Sergey Starostin, who introduced her to the Russian musical folklore and soon also joined the band.

Alliance's album Sdelano v Belom (Made in White) was released in 1991 and won the Radio France International's Best East-European album award two years later. In 1994 the band travelled to France to take part in the concert for the Radio, but without the singer, as Inna Zhelannaya had left in 1992 to give birth to her child. Before that in 2006 the singer joined the band Malerия to record the album 77RUS which came out in June of that year.

In 2013, Inna Zhelannaya started working with a new band featuring Sergey 'Grebstel' Kalachov (bass), Oleg Maryakhin (saxophone, electronics), Dmitry Frolov (drums) and Vladimir Goubatov (sound engineer, referred to as a band member), her new songs combining elements of folk, progressive rock, jazz, trance, electronic, and psychedelia. Zhelannaya's double album Izvorot (The Bending) came out in October 2014, to some critical acclaim. "It's as if King Crimson would have approached the traditional musical folklore rooted out of the deepest Russian backwood," a Russian Rolling Stone reviewer opined.

On 18 May 2017 Zhelannaya and Kalachov (now, drums and arrangements) presented their new art and music project called VILY (ВИЛЫ, Fairies, see Vila (fairy)), featuring three more modern folk female singers, Margarita Kozheurova, Svetlana Lobanova and Alyona Lifshits.

Discography

Inna Zhelannaya Sdelano v belom (1992, BSA Records) - as a part of "Alliance" Vodorosl (1995, General Records) Zima (live, 2008, Inasound Records. Recorded on June 3, 2007 in Moscow Art Theater) Kokon (2009, Inasound Records) Izvorot (2014, Inasound Records)

Inna Zhelannay and Farlanders Inozemets (1998, Green Wave Records) Moments (live, 2000, Green Wave. Recorded in Germany) Vymysly (2004, Green Wave)

Collaborations Winter in Moscow (2001, Jaro Medien GmbH), with Sergey Staroston and Mari Boine Tansy Teney (2002, Green Wave), with Sergey Kalatchyov 77RUS (2006, Никитин Records), with Malerия