"ASSA" (soundtrack, 1988)

Wiki says: "Assa is a Soviet film directed by Sergei Solovyov and released in 1987. It became a cult film, mostly thanks to the fact that it was one of the films that brought Russian rock music from the underground into the mainstream."

As you may remember, in the early 80s rock musicians from all over Soviet Union were releasing their albums in the black market, through home-made tapes. Even if concerts and festivals were allowed, bands from the underground scene weren't accepted by the official Soviet label, Melodiya.

"Assa" changed everything, as Kino and Akvarium performed in it, only to become stars soon after the release. The soundtrack was released in 1988 by Melodiya.

In particular, two songs became enormously popular. The first is "Gorod zolotoy" (transl. "City of God") by Akvarium, a wonderful acoustic lullaby influenced by Renaissance music. It was originally composed by Vladimir Vavilov in 1972, with lyrics added by poet Henri Volokhonsky.

The second is "Hochu peremen!" by Kino, a post-punk anthem with powerful, outbursting lyrics about freedom: "Our hearts are longing for changes, Our eyes are longing for changes, It's in our laugh and in our tears, And in the pulse of our veins. Changes, we are longing for changes!"

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BG (Boris Grebenshikov) - "RUSSKIY AL'BOM" (1992)

Original artist name: Борис Гребенщиков
Original album title: Русский альбом

After the release of "Ravnodenstvie", Akvarium entered the most difficult phase of their career. That album was not the work of a proper band: only Boris Grebenshikov and Aleksandr Titov played on all tracks, with various session men providing the rest of the instrumentation. That's why Grebenshikov decided to temporarily suspend the project and go on a journey outside Russia. 
In 1989 he was in Great Britain, where he recorded the solo album "Radio Silence", produced by Dave Stewart of Eurythmics. The same year an attempt to resurrect Akvarium failed after some sessions (the unfinished album, "Feodalizm", would have been released only in 2007). 
After other minor projects, he decided to come back in great style with this "Russkiy al'bom", a set of folk-rock songs rooted in Russian traditional sounds. Released at the time simply as BG (his acronym), but today considered by everyone an effective Akvarium album, the work is dominated by acoustic instruments (guitars, violins, mandolin) and elevated by the presence of Oleg Sakmarov, who played oboe, flute, and Russian bagpipes, generating some incredible, ancestral sounds (i.e. the opening and closing instrumental tracks). Last but not least, here you can find "Nikita Ryazanskiy" and "Burlak", two of Grebenshikov's most beautiful and appreciated songs. 

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AKVARIUM - "RAVNODENSTVIE" (1987)

Original band name: Аквариум 
Original album title: Равноденствие

A turning point in the history of Russian pop music. Released by Melodiya Records in vinyl format, "Ravnodenstvie" ("Equinox") was the first rock album legally accepted by Soviet authorities.

Like every album Akvarium released in the Eighties, it contains some incredible tracks: "Velikiy dvornik" is an evocative, dreamy folk song referred to a spiritual Great Janitor; "Partizany polnoy Luny" is a hymn to freedom slightly reminiscent of British psych-prog singer Kevin Ayers; "Adelaida" is a stunning love ballad with some arcane, gothic folk arrangements.

N.B. I've added "Poezd v ogne" at the end of the tracklist. It is a gracious ballad in the style of Bob Dylan and one of Grebenshikov's most popular songs. It was released in 1988, combined with a video for Russian television. 

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AKVARIUM - "DETI DEKABRYA" (1986)

"Deti Dekabrya" (transl. "December's Childen", an homage to the Rolling Stones) was not Akvarium's most successful album, but it was surely one of their most important, as it represents a necessary step in the evolution of the band. It is characterized by a surprisingly hi-tech sound, which the band applied to both popular and experimental styles of rock music, demonstrating once again its eclecticism.

The album is stylistically fragmented, but this doesn't affect too much its power, as it contains some of the best Akvarium songs: "Zhazhda" is an industrial march full of metallic sounds and electronic noises, "Sny o chem-to bol'shem" and "Kad Goddo" are two massive ballads with melancholic keyboard sounds, "Tancy na grani vesny" is a new wave minor anthem with some amazing rhythm guitars interplays. On the opposite pole you will find "Derevnya", a celtic fok number with tons of sound effects, and "Deti dekabrya", a sweet acoustic lullaby.

This album marked the departure of Aleksandr Lyapin (who plays guitar only on two tracks), and the return of Sergey Kuryokhin (absent on "Den' Serebra"), whose synthesizers dominate the first half of the tracklist.

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AKVARIUM - "DEN' SEREBRA" (1984)

Produced once again by Andrei Tropillo, "Den' Serebra" is the seventh studio album by Akvarium. 

On a first listen, you may find it less experimental and peculiar than "Tabu" or "Radio Afrika", but if you pay more attention you will be conquered by the solidity of these folkish arrangements and nice tunes.

Some of my favourite moments here are the celtic-style chant of "Ehlektrichestvo", the jazz hybrid of "Glaz", and the epic ballad "Nebo stanovitsya blizhe", one of Akvarium's most appreciated songs (it is still the core in many of their concerts today). 

Aleksandr Lyapin plays some of his finest guitar parts on this record, and Boris Grebenshikov in person considers it the best album ever released by his band.

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AKVARIUM - "RADIO AFRIKA" (1983)

Original band's name: Аквариум

Original title: Радио Африка

"Radio Afrika" is Akvarium's sixth album. It is also their first recorded with a professional equipment, after their producer Andrei Tropillo corrupted the engineer of a classical music studio, allowing them to use it at night (as you probably remember from the previous post, Russian rock bands were still not allowed yet in professional studios in the early 80's).

It is such a strange album: some songs are easy to remember, with their contagious tunes ("Muzyka serebryanykh spits" is a folk-boogie in the style of Marc Bolan; "Rok n roll mertv" is a powerful electric folk anthem; "Vana Khoya" is a lounge song, surrounded by an ethereal atmosphere; "Vremya Luny" is a danceable, wonderful pop number guided by Sergey Kuryokhin's electric organ sound), while others are little experimental fragments full of field recordings, manipulated tapes, piano and sax jazz solos. 

After this album the band's popularity increased exponentially all around Soviet Union.

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AKVARIUM - "TABU" (1982)

Original band's name: Аквариум
Original title: Табу

Since their foundation in 1972, Akvarium represented the history of Russian rock music more than any other band. It is basically an open project, which changed a lot of members through the decades, with the only constant presence of leader, singer and guitar player Boris Grebenshikov.
Before writing about this album, their fifth, I will summarize their adventurous history.

1972-1979
The Seventies were the era of the harshest rock repression in Soviet Union. In the first years Akvarium played only some acoustic concerts in small apartments and clubs: they didn't use electric instruments to avoid control and problems with the authority. 
Their first public concerts were played in 1976, but still with acoustic instruments (a strategy to obtain invitations at the various Popular Music Festivals organized in Russia at the time). 
Anyway, they were still not allowed to release albums. Everything they recorded from 1972 to 1979 was realized in poor studio-apartments, with no equipment and no budget. This material remained in the shadow for decades until it was released between 1996 and 2001: it's basically a mix of horribly recorded folk tunes and ingenuous tape manipulations. You can live without it.

1980-1985 
In 1980 an event changed the history of Russian music. "Vesennie ritmy, Tbilisi-80!" was the first Rock Festival in Soviet Union. It was organized by the Georgian communist party to show an open mind, and hopefully to sedate the students' riots of 1978-79.
Akvarium were expelled after their performance was considered scandalous, but the festival was a big success and it started the liberalization of rock music (officially, rock albums were still banned, but the authorities let the bands release and self-distribuite them through concerts, festivals and black market: that's why Russian rock albums of the Eighties were released on home-made magnetic tapes).

1986-1991
In 1986 Melodiya, the official Soviet label, signed Kino and Akvarium under contract, giving them the possibility to sell their albums with a regular distribution. This was probably due to the fact that they were both enormously popular, and the authorities feared the impact that they had on young people. The majority of other bands had to wait until the birth of the C.I.S. to reach major distributions.

This is basically all you have to know to understand the political situation of the time, and to understand how much this band fighted for its music: it started in 1972, it was allowed to release its first album in 1981, and it had to wait until 1986 to obtain a regular professional contract.

"Tabu" is the album that I've chosen to start with Akvarium because it is the first one which is musically interesting: three of their first four albums ("Siniy al'bom", 1981; "Treugol'nik", 1981; "Akustika", 1982) were basically folk music in the style of early Bob Dylan (just adding some flute here and there), while the remaining one ("Elektrichestvo", 1981) was probably out of focus (on the first side some electric boogies recorded live in concert, on the second a collection of reggae tunes recorded in studio).

In "Tabu" Grebenshikov decided to improve Akvarium's musical power. Helped by Sergey Kuryokhin's brilliant piano improvisations and Alexander Lyapin's powerful electric guitars, Grebenshikov created a personal universe that englobes without distinction post-punk rhythms, blues scales, local folk, free-jazz fragments, and the aristocracy of art-rock. The best tracks here are probably "Segodnya noch'yu kto-to" (a nearly gothic piece), "Pepel" (a cold post-punk song admittedly inspired by Gary Numan), and "Synov'ya molchalivykh dney" (an epic ballad dedicated to David Bowie since its title, which means "Sons of the Silent Age"): three extraordinary rock numbers that show a band at the height of its musical creativity, with nothing to envy to Western music's giants.

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