Navigator Records presents the "Native-Grasses" which is the fourth full album of Melnitsa, a popular band on russian folk-stage. The second song from this album "Faraway" was already on top of the charts two month before the official CD presentation. The album "Native-grasses" tells a story about love, adventures, genuine feelings, about giving birth to a child and a song itself. This is a complex and multifarious album which combines great vocal, light acoustics, funk, thick electro sound with jazz influence, rock ballads and pure folk. Every song is a potential hit as Melnitsa used the indo-european legends, classic western poetry and ideas of Spanish poets.The presentation of the album "Native-grasses" was held in the biggest stadium in Moscow - SC Olympiyskyi where the band showed its magic in action!

А если бы он/And if he would

Melnitsa is the most famous Russian folk-rock band founded in Moscow on October 15th in 1999.

Five full albums have created a phenomenon in folk-music which puts down roots deeply in the entire music industry.

Melnitsa's way from tiny Moscow clubs till the largest capital stadiums took ten years full of triumph on the radio, changes in the line-up and enormous number of live concerts. Band has managed not only to make public change its attitude to folklore but they also succeeded in making folk-rock as popular as it is nowadays. Music of Melnitsa is mainly considered to be an acoustic or electroacoustic folk-rock though there is a mix of folk-jazz ("Witch"), rock-ballads ("Rain for us") and even lullabies ("White cat"). A very careful listener can hear influences of such bands like Led Zeppelin, Jefferson Airplane, The Rolling Stones and Janis Joplin as they are creative reference points for Melnitsa.

The authorship of the majority of the songs belongs to Hellawes (Natalia O'Shea) yet band has some songs based on W. B. Yeats, Rudyard Kipling and Robert Burns poetry. Hellawes also has constant co-writers Olga Lishina (Lazuri) and Ivan Malyutin (Lancer). Adorable folk-diva Hellawes is a professional linguist, so she constantly uses a wide and vivid palette of indo-european mythology while writing songs. Lyrics and music are often based on russian, celtic, scandinavian, balkan ballads, legends and folk beliefs.

Malnitsa at present consits of:

- Hellawes (Natalia O'Shea) - lead singer, acoustic celtic harp, electro celtic harp.

Natalia was born and grew up in Moscow. She got musical education in piano yet she plays the guitar and lever harp.

- Sergey Vishnyakov - acoustic guitar, electro guitar, back-vocals.

Sergey has been playing the guitar since he was twelve years old yet has musical education in piano. He has graduated from College of Arts with pop-jazz guitar specialization.

- Dmitri Frolov - drum set, percussion.
Dmitri wanted to become a drummer already at the age of four and from seventeen started touring actively. He has graduated from Gnessin Musical College.

- Aleksey Orlov - acoustic cello, electro cello.

Aleksey has wide musical education including several Musical Colleges and private jazz teachers.

- Aleksey Kozhanov - bass guitar.

Aleksey joined the band in 2005. He is also a sound director in several Moscow clubs

- Dmitri Karguin - flute, whistle, melodica

Dmitri has joined the band in 2013.