Jazz Wednesday: Empathy Project

September 11, 8 PM

Empathy Project was founded in 2011 by multi-instrumentalist Dmitry Vasiliev and singer Alexandra Kurkova. Both grew up on folk music, and then attended a jazz school. Starting with jazz mainstream, the musicians gradually moved on to writing original material. In eight years the project evolved from a duo to a sextet. The band attended Des Nuit du Suquet festival in Cannes, become laureates of the St. Petersburg Autumn Marathon competition and the Moscow Gnesin Jazz, participated in Andrei Kondakov’s Close Encounters contemporary music festival. Last year, their debut album Influences was released on the Russian Fancy Music label — a harmonious fusion of post-bop, neoclassic, folk and indie rock. In addition to songs from the debut album, musicians will perform new compositions.

Tickets are available at the New Holland Island Infocentre, priced at 200 rubles. Places are limited.

Since the possibility to record music on physical media appeared, demand for artists has been calculated not only based on the number of tickets sold for concerts, but also on the number of singles and albums released. Nowadays, digital platforms allow musicians to deliver their recordings directly to listeners, bypassing labels and record companies.  According to statistics, last year, St. Petersburg jazz musicians released no less releases than hip-hop artists. Even though this is not quite to the scale of the USA in the middle of the last century, when Miles Davis could record four records in two months, the St. Petersburg jazz scene has something to show to the world. The catalog from this year and previous years contains mainstream, modern jazz, and New Orleans classic jazz. This summer, as part of Jazz Wednesdays in the Bottle House, musicians from St. Petersburg will present their latest releases.