"When Russian pop music isn't blatantly aping bad Western rock, it often combines folk roots with 20th-century chops, a back-to-the-future progressive music more about Igor Stravinsky than Jethro Tull. Inna and the Farlanders are of this ilk, and the quintet's best material adds Oriental and klezmer tinges to traditional Russian folk tunes rearranged for a lively combination of old-school instruments--clarinets, the wooden kaliuka flute, and the trumpetlike "sherpherd's horn"--alongside a jazzy drummer and melodically bubbling fretless bass. A sense of pagan magic underlies Inna's original songs; she sings of "weaving my crafty net of lace" in one, and of "not gathering grass to cast a spell" in another. The album's wildest track, however, is "Easter," an unrestrained, rapping incantation borrowed directly from the Russian Orthodox tradition." --Richard Gehr

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The basis of the Inna Zhelannaya group created in 1994 was musicians of the legendary rock band Alliance, well known in the 80's and early 90's.

The unique voices of Inna Zhelannaya and Sergei Starostin, Inna's poetic, figurative lyrics combined with honed musical arrangements made the band unlike any other Russian ensemble. The music of the group does not lend itself to the usual genre definitions - it combines elements of different directions of rock, Russian folklore, and other ethnic traditions.

The fatal rhythm section with powerful drums, a dynamic electric guitar and the unusual sound of a unique fretless 6-string bass, the use of electronic processors, the richest set of wind instruments - all this defines a special, company sound of the band.

In 1989, Inna began her collaboration with the rock band Alliance. At the same time, she was carried away by folk songs and melodies, with which she was introduced by one of the best Russian folk and ...