Цой жив!

It's not often that I use Burning Aquarium as a medium for showing holiday snaps.
In a sidestreet off Arbat in Moscow there is a graffiti wall dedicated to the memory of Viktor Tsoi where admirers still gather to pay tribute to the man who's contribution to the pop culture of the Soviet Union was immense.

Natasha.

Offerings- flowers, fags, beer.

Predictably the guy was playing Gruppa Krovi .

Walker.

Viktor Robertovich Tsoi (21.06.62-15.08.90)

Red Wave-4 Underground Bands From The USSR (1986)

This LP, put together by American producer Joanna Stingray, was the first western release of rock music from the Soviet Union.
At this time rock music in the Soviet Union was still largely an underground affair.
The four bands featured were all from Leningrad (now St Petersburg):



Аквaриум (Aquarium)

КИНО (Kino)

Алиса (Alisa)

Странные игры (Strange Games)

КИНО- Blood Type- (English version of Группа Крови)- (1989)

I’m forever singing the praises of Leningrad’s КИНО, a band whose influence on Soviet/ Russian culture during what was a transitional period in history has no parallel here in the west. In 1989, the era of Perestroika, the band went to France to record a compilation for the French market (Le Dernier Des L’Héros). It was during sessions at Studio du Val d’Orge that they recorded this English version of their great number Группа Крови (Gruppa Krovi).
The track was unreleased until 2002 when Moroz Records issued Последние записи (Posledniye Zapisi -Last Recordings).
I’m not a gamer but I gather this features on Grand Theft Auto IV?.

КИНО- Группа Крови ( Blood Group)- (1988)

The title track of this LP is a classic.
Viktor Tsoi- John Lennon and Joe Strummer rolled into one.
You can read transliterations and translations of КИНО lyrics here.

КИНО-Звезда по имени Солнце (A Star Called The Sun) (1989)

Rock music emerged as a cultural force in the Soviet Union in the 1980’s. The first official Rock festival, Spring Rhythms, was held in Georgia in 1980 . Groups from Russia dominated the festival.
The state maintained control over the music industry, with official clubs and an official label, (Melodiya) which, it follows, was not going to promote protest or anti establishment music. So the underground remained.
State run rock clubs were founded in Moscow, Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) and Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) .
The largest of these, the snappily named Leningrad Rock Club, opened in 1981 and was the first legal rock music venue in the city.
Television and film also contributed to bringing Russian rock to a wider public in the 1980s. New musical television shows, such as Muzykalny Ring (Музыкальный ринг) and Programma A(Программа А), featured interviews and live shows, whilst KINO’s Viktor Tsoi featured in two popular movies.
The beginning of the '90s are considered to be the end of the "classic" Russian rock era. The two events that mark its end are the death of Viktor Tsoi in 1990, and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Звезда по имени Солнце (A Star Called the Sun, pronounced- Zvezda po imeni Solntse) was released in 1989.
Being far from the source there is an eclecticism of influence in evidence here- a great blend of post punk new wave sound with hints of everything from U2 to Joy Division.

Line up:
Victor Tsoi - vocals, guitar
Yurii Kasparyan - guitar
Igor Tikhomirov - bass
Georgiy Guryanov - percussion

КИНО- 45 (1982)

“Цой жив!” (Tsoi lives!- still painted on walls throughout the former Soviet Union).
КИНО (pronounced key-no, and meaning cinema) was the most prominent rock group in the Soviet Union.
Formed in Leningrad in 1981 they recorded this, their debut, in 1982. In the Soviet Union rock music was very much an underground affair, and the LP was circulated via unofficial channels. The album derives its title from its running time; 45 minutes, or, conveniently, one side of a C90 cassette.
With the beginning of the Perestroika era rock music became more ‘open’, although КИНО still found themselves on the margins of the accepted scene.
In 1988 however they released an album (Blood Group) which, along with the appearance of frontman Viktor Tsoi in a movie (Needle) raised КИНО to the pinnacle of popularity, and they toured widely, both within the USSR and abroad.
Viktor Tsoi was killed in a car crash on 15th August, 1990. He was 28 years old.

Line up:
Victor Tsoi - vocals, guitar
Aleksei Rybin -guitar
Boris Grebenshchikov - guitar,glockenspiel,backing vocals
Mikhail Vasil'ev - drum machine,backing vocals
Vsevolod Gakkel' - cello
Andrei Romanov -flute
Andrei Tropillo - flute, backing Vocals