Russian Music

Chizh & Co is a Russian rock band. It was named The Band of a Year by “Rock-Fuzz” magazine in 1997.

Kipelov is a Russian heavy metal band formed and led by former Aria vocalist Valery Kipelov. In 2002, the disbandment of the heavy metal band Aria led to Aria members Valery Kipelov (vocals), Sergey Terentyev (guitar) and Alexander Maniakin (drums) joining with former Aria member Sergey Mavrin and bassist Alexey Harkov of Mavrik to form Kipelov. The band was named to make use of the fame of the best-known member, singer Kipelov. Since Kipelov was, essentially, just a revision of Aria, they were able to begin performing immediately.

Tequilajazzz is definitely one of the most interesting bands of the 1990’s in Russia. The band is currently residing in St. Petersburg but has been touring all around the world. The band describes its music as power pop and the band combines styles like pure punk, hardcore to jazz and film music. The leader of the band, Yevgeni Fedorov is also a highly respected film composer.

Zveri are a Russian pop/rock band who released their debut album Golod (Hunger) in 2003^. Zveri was formed in mid-2002 by Roman Bilyk, the lead singer of the band, better known as Roma Zver. The group was named after his nickname. He was soon joined by Maksim Leonov on guitars, Kostya Labezkiy on the bass, Kirill Antonenko on keyboards and Misha Kraev on the drums and the group began work on their debut album. This album contained many of the group’s best-known songs, such as Dozhdi-Pistolety (Rain-Guns), Dlya Tebya (For You) and Prosto Takaya Sil’naya Lyubov’ (Simply such a strong love).

Akvarium is a Russian rock group, formed in Leningrad in 1972 by Boris Grebenshchikov and Anatoly (George) Gunitsky. The band is one of the oldest existing rock bands, and still releases singles regularly. Fans can visit their official multilingual site for more information and updates on this great band.

Agata Kristi is a Russian rock group led by brothers Vadim and Gleb Samoylov, that was established in Sverdlovsk in 1988.

The original band comprises:

• Глеб Самойлов (Gleb Samoylov) — vocals, guitar, bass, lyrics, adaptation, keyboard
• Вадим Самойлов (Vadim Samoylov) — vocals, guitar, bass, lyrics, adaptation, keyboard
• Андрей Котов (Andrey Kotov) — drums, percussion
• Александр Козлов (Aleksandr Kozlov) — keyboard, composer/lyrics (now deceased)

Auktyon is a slightly avant gardist rock band that was formed in the early 1980’s. They are still quite popular and are regularly touring. The lineup of Auktyon are:

- Leonid Fedorov - vocals, guitar, percussion

- Oleg Garkusha - show, declamation, vocals

- Viktor Bondarik - bass

- Dmitry Ozersky - keyboard, percussion, trumpet

- Nikolay Rubanov - saxophones, bass-clarinet, jaleika

- Boris Shaveinikov - drums, percussion

- Pavel Litvinov - percussion

- Mikhail Kolovsky - tube, trumpet

- Mikhail Rappoport - sound engineer

Vopli Vidopliassova is a humorous folk rock band from Kiev, Ukraine. The band was formed in 1986 and has been quite popular ever since. Vopli Vidopliassova also gained some popularity in France and was reported to have toured with Sonic Youth in the USA. The video below is a nice one, hope you’ll check it out.

Yulia Savicheva was born on February 14, 1987 and is a Russian singer who performed for Russia in the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest which was held in Istanbul, Turkey. Yulia was born in the city of Kurgan to a family of musicians. In September 2007, she had concerts in Japan (Tokyo and Osaka). In February 2008, she released a new album titled “Origami”, which is a Japanese word which means the art of folding paper.

Mumiy Troll is a Russian rock group, founded in 1981 in Vladivostok by linguist Ilia Lagutenko. The literal name of the band, mummy troll, has no specific meaning in Russian, and is reminiscent of the Tove Jansson characters, the Moomintrolls.