NIKOLAY KOPERNIK - "RODINA" (1986)

Original band name: Николай Коперник
Original album title: Родина

Despite never being popular, Nikolay Kopernik was one of the most fascinating bands of Russian new wave. 

The line-up of their debut album consists of Yuri Orlov (vocals, guitars), Igor Len
(keyboards), Dmitry Tsvetkov (drum machine), Oleg Andreev (bass guitar), and Igor Andreev (saxophone).

Like many other rock acts of their era, they were not allowed to record in a professional studio, and they had to arrange themselves into a small apartment. Tsvetkov opted for a drum machine when he realized there was not enough space for a real set of drums. 

You can try to imagine a Soviet answer to David Sylvian's Japan, Bill Nelson, early Adam & the Ants, or even Frankie Goes to Hollywood, but obviously the band had enough personality to sound in its own, peculiar way. 

They were excellent and creative instrumentists. Orlov played guitar with a glass thimble, giving it a thin, crystalline sound; Andreev played a fretless bass, filling a lot of spaces with his improvisations; Len added the atmosphere with his electronic layers, often ispired by minimalism and ambient music.

The music was composed by Len, Tsvetkov, and Orlov, while the latter wrote the lyrics, inspired by a book of poems from northern Russia.

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