By the time instrumental legend Yorgi released his 30th Clubbo album in 2002, few music consumers could recall a world without the former Soviet Union’s ubiquitous Master of the Konservnaya Banka.

The prolific international superstar had been a fixture of the recording cosmos since the 1960s, first in his Ukrainian homeland and later in the U.S., where his exotically themed mood music albums became Clubbo’s closest approximation of a can’t-fail cash cow.

But was the Yorgi who single-handedly popularized the konservnaya banka — a deceptively simple folk instrument fashioned from a tin can, a stick, and a single string — the same individual as the surprisingly youthful Yorgi who mixed it up in later releases like Yo Yorgi! Konservnaya Banka Flavaz from da Street and Yorgi Real Bristol Triphop? And was this Yorgi the same Yorgi who now runs the lucrative Rocktion rock memorabilia auction site?

As Clubbo’s new caretakers, we decided to find out. Full story...

listen: Selected hits from Yorgi's extensive Clubbo catalog...

more: What really happened during Yorgi's lost years?