Ivan Shapovalov is a name you may not be familiar with. But one of his great legacies as a producer continues to go around the world in the voices of Yulia Volkova and Lena Katina.
However, there is much more after the T.aT.u. project. Shapovalov and his ‘know how’ have reached the steppes of Kyrgyzstan, the streets of Morocco and the Ural Mountains in his native Russia through the Podnebeses music international project.
Ivan Shapovalov is a name you may not be familiar with. But one of his great legacies as a producer continues to go around the world in the voices of Yulia Volkova and Lena Katina.
However, there is much more after the T.aT.u project. Shapovalov and his ‘know how’ have reached the steppes of Kyrgyzstan, the streets of Morocco and the Ural Mountains in his native Russia through the Podnebeses international project.
While I was studying Russian and the songs of T.a.T.u. took on a new meaning, not only because of the language, but because of the sound atmospheres that were distantly familiar, I decided to investigate the creator of ‘the most successful Russian musical export of all time’. Beyond those old videos of Russia in the 2000s, I found a very interesting compilation entitled Голоса Кочевников (Nomadic Voices), as one of the projects of Vanya Podnebes, Ivan Shapovalov’s nickname in this new stage.
I went to Russia in 2017 and contacted him by email for an interview. “Everything is possible”, he told me. It was not until 2018 that I returned to Russia, when Aurora Apushkinskaya, a singer and Ivan’s collaborator, answered me and arranged a visit to Konakovo River Club, a hotel village on the banks of the Volga River. We meet at the Leningradsky railway station and arrive in the evening. The next day, Ivan arrived for lunch and we met at the restaurant. “They will be short answers”, he said.
Podnebeses derives from the concept Podnebesnaya (Поднебесная: Under the sky), which Ivan has had since 2003 (as a producer under which T.a.T.u.’s second album was worked on and the start of live sessions with other singers). This, related to the analogy of the Tower of Babel in front of the collaborations between voices of different origins, make up the project until today.
But Ivan left that studio in the penthouse of the Beijing Hotel in Moscow, and went to meet the voices in other latitudes like Kyrgyzstan, during the Nomadic Games festival, when people from the villages gather, and eventually, Ivan organized an expedition with a mobile studio, to make sessions and sound experimentation.
Why do we have so many languages? Why are we diverse? Where is the code, the intermediate bridge? I tried to find the bridge between languages and my idea is to make it a song. -Ivan Shapovalov-
Ivan leaned towards ethnic motives, first to avoid copyright issues, but mainly because of the transcendence in time, and the genuineness of the voices. “I never ask myself if ethnic is correct, true or false, I don’t understand the language but I believe in it. I can believe in any good poetry even if it is not my language, it is a way of trusting the language. No more”.
Podnebese expeditions have toured China, the Ural Mountains, Morocco, Central Asia, and the studio has welcomed more than 50 performers representing 16 languages of the world.
The project, albeit with some brief hiccups, has continued to flourish, and now in 2022 Podnebeses have organized a recording camp with Yakutian artists at Konakovo River Club under the name Sosedi.
Ivan considers the Konakovo River Club to be the ideal place for these creative gatherings. “This place surrounded by the Volga River is the perfect Russian stopover for nomads from all over the world.”
This time, in collaboration with the artists and ambassadors of the Yakut tradition, Yuliana Krivoshapkina and Saaryn, more than 5 tracks have already been recorded, which we will surely be able to hear soon.
“The voice is a universal instrument, the language does not matter, I have to open my voice, and believe in it, even if I manage to understand the words, I need to feel and believe in them”. This is the leitmotif of Ivan Shapovalov, and the life of Podnebeses, since the birth of each song in the voice of every person.
Learn more about his project here:
https://podnebeses.com/
https://soundcloud.com/podnebeses
https://www.instagram.com/podnebeses/
https://www.facebook.com/podnebeses/