Duo
Misha Kalinin & Roksana Smirnova DUO
Ukrainian musicians, based in Berlin (DE)
Guitarist Misha Kalinin and pianist
Roksana Smirnova have played many concerts together. Over the last ten years they have been developing their duo. The result inspires a ride through an imaginary world of landscape and story. The combination of Roksana's delicate yet playful piano playing with Misha's atmospheric soundscapes creates a unique, almost unidentifiable new ensemble sound that eludes genre.
Roksana and Misha came together from different musical backgrounds, and their scope of experience is easily heard in their artistry. Misha Kalinin takes the guitar out of its traditional place. Brimming over with ideas, he creates something remarkably unexpected. Pianist Roksana Smirnova
combines spontaneity of improvisation with a sense of form influenced by her
classical background. Their performances feature original
compositions by both members of the duo.
The music brings together strongly contrasting elements: spacious impressionistic sound, improvisational interaction, dynamic
rhythmic structures and sounds dissolving in silence. Musical dialogues are configured into captivating compositions that connect deeply with listeners.
Channeling the flow of inspiration, the duo actively paints pictures in the mind.
Album “Whispers”
Recorded in 2020, Udine, Italy.
Sound engineer Stefano Amerio
"Roksana Smirnova and Misha Kalinin are releasing an album with self-composed music that goes to the core of their musical collaboration, formed by improvisation woven into different structures and experimentation with soundscapes. Pianist Roksana Smirnova draws on her classical formation in combination with improvisation, and guitarist Misha Kalinin takes his instrument out of its traditional role through his distinctive interpretation. These are performers who have found a unique, cross-genre, and creative musical dialogue"
-Roger Holdsworth
Arne Berg for NRK radio, Norway: “When I ask Roksana Smirnova and Misha Kalinin if it's not paradoxical that the world is discovering Ukrainian culture because of the war, they answer that the paradoxical is that Ukrainians are discovering their own culture for themselves right now”.