White Fort. Two Siberians. Белый Острог. By any other name, this is a rocking Russian duet composed of Artyom Yakushenko (violin) and Yuriy Matveyev (guitar). Their music tends to be lively and dynamic and spans many genres. They can pull this off because they've spent far too many winters with nothing to do but practice, practice, practice. They met while studying classical music at the Fine Arts Academy in Irkutsk, Siberia. Their first performance was a national music festival in Novosibirsk, where they won the grand prize for Best New Band. Artyom was promptly suspended from the Academy upon his return; his teachers were not pleased that he had sullied his stern classical training by playing (dramatic pause) Rock and Jazz music. The duet moved to Moscow, where they impressed an American promoter while playing at a swanky art exhibit for vodka shots. This led to the release of their first American album, "Out of Nowhere," under the moniker "Two Siberians," which includes guest performances by a number of prominent American jazz artists (including the late Michael Brecker). This, in turn, led to the development of multiple artist accounts for the same band under different names, languages, and alphabets--here on Last.FM, and everywhere else. This has helped them become one of the most obscure bands on the Intarweb, despite their volcanic talent. Influences run the gamut from Mozart to Jimi Hendrix. The band has toured worldwide, playing in trance clubs on

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