Professional music career of Ilya Truhanov started in 1996 year when he
and another guitarist Ilya Kukalo created “Acoustic Band” duet. In the
beginning they played in Moscow clubs and a bit later they toured in
Russia and some post-USSR countries. In 2000 year “Acoustic Band” won
grand-prix at Russian contest “Guitar – 2000”. A lot of Russian
magazines and publications rapturously responded on their music (such
as: “Music Box”, “In/Out”, “Guitarist”, etc). In 2002 the duet won first
place at “Many-Faced Guitar” contest in “fusion” nomination. The same
year they released the first album “Pieces for the two guitars” (all the
music was composed by Ilya). After it they were invited to take part in
the “Best Guitarists of Russia” fest, and even Al Dimeola, who was
playing shows in Moscow that time, has highly estimated their playing.
In 2003 “Acoustic Band” released “Tango-Mango” album and after it Ilya
Truhanov began on his solo. With his band (guitar, cello, drums) he won
in “Acoustic Guitar” and “Many-Faced Guitar” contests and in 2004 the
album “Dreams of Paspartu” was recorded. The next CD “Trio” was an
experiment with more modern sound and traditional rock-band instruments
as guitar, electric bass and drums. In 2006 year Ilya and his trio were
sharing the stage of “Musicfest” show with Jean Luc Ponty, Steve Baily,
Rishad Shafi and others. Ilya was awarded by The Festival Committee for
contribution into development of musical education and keeping the
cultural heritage of Russia. In 2007-2008 Ilya was collaborating with
very talented pianist Alexander Losev. In 2009 year Ilya have finished
“Far and Wide” album and that’s the new way for him. He has rethought
his approach for composing music. The music of this album is not the
traditional acoustic guitar music with ultra-fast passages and
mind-blowing fingerstyle equilibristic. It’s multi-layered and melodic,
emotional and figurative. Of course, you can hear some speed runs and
other technical tricks with which Ilya is known for, that wasn’t the
issue as itself, but just the elements of arrangement. Also very much
time was spent for the sound, “Far and Wide” was produced and mixed by
the great Russian musician/producer Alexander Perfilyev and mastered by
legendary Bob Katz. And now Ilya is working on the new album but that’s
another story. By the way, all this time Truhanov collaborates with
different Russian pop/rock singers/bands/musicians, works as a session
musician and gives lessons.