Riffing on the highs and lows of the sonic landscape

The quirky violist known as Ljova, an ingratiating fixture on the New York new music scene, has just released a recording called "Melting River." You can purchase and download it for as little as $2 on the artist-friendly website Bandcamp as either an inferior MP3 file or an HD-resolution FLAC file. Ljova says that there will be no physical release.

By Mark Swed and Randall Roberts, Los Angeles Times Music Critics

December 2, 2012