Some of the songs you can discover on this site are more than a thousand years old. For centuries they were passed from generation to generation only by the oral tradition, sometimes evolving, sometimes staying close to what they sounded like in those ancient days. Even today there are Russian villages where this tradition still exists, but it is quickly fading. As the time goes by, the old masters pass away, and the young villagers tend to choose the modern culture.

Many amazingly beautiful songs were recorded over the years in ethnographic expeditions to those villages, but only a small part of them was either released as an authentic village recording or performed by other folk ensembles, and even those recordings are mostly available only in Russia.

EthnoRussia is a project dedicated to preserving ancient traditional Russian songs, sharing our knowledge and promoting Russian traditional music in the world.

For information about project news, upcoming and recent performances, and other events, please check out our calendar!