Alfa (band)
Alpha | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Moscow |
| Genres | New wave Soft rock Pop rock |
| Years active | 1983–1997 |
| Labels | Samizdat, Melodiya |
| Associated acts | Aria, Magic Twilight, Master, Cruise, Black Coffee |
| Website | http://www.sergeysarychev.ru |
| Past members | Sergey Sarychev Vladimir Kholstinin Sergey Safonov Vitaly Dubinin Alexander Granovsky Igor Molchanov Sergey Efimov Anatoly Kurnosov Sergey Kudishin Alexander Rybkin Sergey Chernyakov Vitaly Bondarchuk Alexey Gorbachov Valery Grishkov Vsevolod Korolyuk Sergey Vlasov Mikhail Samofalov Eduard Prediger Andrey Baranov Tatyana Markova |
Alpha (Alfa, Russian: Альфа) is a rock-pop group from the former Soviet Union. Organized in January 1983 in Moscow by the former keyboardist for Cruise, Sergei Sarychev. It consisted of two members from a group called Magic Twilight, guitarist Vladimir Kholstinin, one of the founding members of heavy metal band Aria, and bass guitarist Vitaly Dubinin, the bassist for Aria. Along with Vladimir, he is also one of the main composers of Alpha, alongside drummer, Sergei Safonov, an ex-Ruby Attack member. At the beginning of its career, the group was called Team Alpha for a short time.
History
Besides the main author Valery Gaina, songs for Cruise were also written by other musicians, artistic director Matvey Anichkin, composers Vladimir Matetsky, Vladimir Presnyakov Sr., and even Vladimir Presnyakov Jr., who was still a schoolboy. Sarychev was the author of the main hit, Spinning Top (Krutitsya Volchok, Russian: Крутится Волчок), but this hit turned out to be his only song on the first album. The second album of Cruise included two songs by Sarychev, one of which he even sang himself, although Alexander Monin was a non-playing soloist. In Alpha, Sarychev became the author of all the songs and the only soloist.
Alpha found a place for rehearsals in the assembly hall of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,[1] where there was a set of proprietary Dynaccord equipment, which was headed by a former technician for the band Mashina Vremeni (Russian: Машина времени, lit. 'Time Machine'), Vladimir Musin. While preparing a program for a philharmonic society, the musicians recorded rehearsals and originally had no plan to release any sort of tapes. It had turned out that Musin had put together a full-length album from rehearsal recordings and helped launch it with Alpha. The album included percussive songs such as "Reveller" on the verses of Sergei Yesenin, "Ikra", "Storm", "Theater", "Race", etc., to verses by Anatoly Monastyrev and Olga Pisarzhevskaya, as well as Andrey Lukyanov. In magneto-publishing, Alpha appeared under the names Posleyschik Posters and Revellers, after their most famous songs, although the musicians themselves preferred Alpha. The album was called "Alpha 1".
The record spread throughout the country, gaining immense popularity and making a name very fast for itself, with many of their songs being popular in discos throughout the 'Golden Age' of music in the USSR. Officially, censorship didn't disappear anywhere, but it was being ignored with increasing frequency.
The hit songs were Storm (Shtorm, Russian: Шторм) and Theater (Teatr, Russian: Театр) (later performed by Irina Ponarovskaya), and especially Reveller (Gulyaka, Russian: Гуляка) (with lyrics by Sergei Yesenin). The fact that Sarychev reflected not the lyrical, but the "tavern" side of Yesenin's work ("I'm a mischievous Muscovite reveller. Throughout the Tver region, every dog in the alley knows my light walk") and even inserted a synthesizer solo, varying the melody of the Russian urban folk song "Fried Chicken," On the crest of success, Alpha made their first attempt to legalize itself by auditioning at the Mosconcert, but ended with the group being allowed to perform only a couple of numbers in group concerts, due to the problems caused with officials who, according to rumors, were greatly outraged by the fragment of the urban folk song “Fried Chicken” that was heard in Reveller. Disappointed with the failure, Dubinin and Safonov left Alpha,[2] however, in January of 1984, the open spaces were occupied by Alexander Granovsky (ex-member of Shift) on bass and Igor Molchanov on drums. In 1984, Alpha released the album Running (Bega, Russian: Бега), which featured several hard rock songs. But "Bega," unlike the debut album, did not receive much success.
Alpha's second album was born in more extreme conditions. As before, all the instrumental tracks were recorded at rehearsal. Alexander Ageev helped the group with recording the second album. During rehearsals on the stage of a restaurant in Obninsk, after its official closure, problems were caused when it was decided to record the vocals on the stage of a restaurant in Obninsk after its official closure, but when the members of Alpha and the sound engineer drove up to the desired institution for the night, looking into what appeared to be a massive fight inside, the restaurant was cordoned off by the police. It was too late to return to Moscow, and it was freezing cold outside in February.
It had to wait. “While the pieces were sweeping,” Ageev recalled later, “we recorded Sarychev's vocals, which were sung not into the microphone, but directly into the remote control, to the disc.” The participation of hard rock adepts, such as Alik Granovsky and Volodya Kholstinin in the recording, determined the harsher sound of the album Running. The main hit of Running was the song Mirror-River (Zerkalo-Reka, Russian: Зеркало-Река). After the release of the second album, Granovsky and Kholstinin left, with Molchanov to follow shortly after. They went on to form the backbone of Singing Hearts, on which the basis of Aria was soon born.
After the breakup, Sarychev went to his father's house in Volzhsky, a native of the town, and in the basement, at a temperature of about twenty degrees below zero,[3] recorded a new album, called Alpha-3 (together with his fellow countryman, drummer Sergei Efimov). He played with gloves cut into his fingers, and heaters on his palms. This is how most of the instrumental base was done, with vocal parts and solos on keyboards Sarychev had recorded already in the house, on an Ilet reel-to-reel tape recorder. Some of the songs of Alpha-3 are completely pop in nature, some are close to technopop. Sarychev himself called the album quite light in nature. But after the release of Alpha-3, he and Efimov were able to perform for eight months at the Moscow Regional Philharmonic. After a while, Efimov left and became the drummer of Cruise.
Two songs from the Alpha-3 ("I am made of such a substance" and "Tsunami"), despite the unusual circumstances of the recording, which were described above, were included in the Panorama-86 double-disc, although at this festival Alpha played in another, full complement. The song, The Stars are Shining on Us (Zvezdy nam Svetjat, Russian: Звезды нам Светят) was later performed by Lyudmila Senchina. In the meantime, Sarychev, wanting to return to rock, recruited a new lineup starting with bass guitarist Anatoly Kurnosov, and drummer Vitaly Bondarchuk (ex-Galaktika member) to join him. The last to come is the guitarist Igor Khomich, but almost immediately he and Kurnosov refused to participate in the recording of the next album. In the album Warm Wind (Tyoplyy Veter, Russian: Тёплый ветер), recorded in 1986, Sarychev again records only with a drummer, but the rock melody of the songs was preserved. The songs "Warm Wind", and Proud Rock (Gordaya Skala, Russian: Гордая Скала) were successful. However, the second duet unfortunately did not last long. Bondarchuk had left to participate (already as a keyboard player) in the creation of the Mirror of the World group by Konstantin Nikolsky.
Reformation
In the poster of the famous pop program of producer Hovhannes Melik-Pashayev, called 'In a Single Rhythm', where Sergei Sarychev is presented as an author-performer, which has survived to this day, proves the fact that already in 1986 Alpha as such did not exist, and only for performing at the Rock-Panorama-86 festival, after almost two years apart, reformed. Together with Sarychev, guitarist Alexei Gorbachov, bassist Valery Grishkov (ex-Red Poppies member), and drummer Vsevolod Korolyuk, an old member from Cruise, performed together. Next year, the Soviet record label Melodiya published a survey of the double album/disc of the Panorama-86 festival, where the group's performance was presented as Sergei Sarychev and the ensemble.
In 1987, Alfa began performing on behalf of Rosconcert,[4] then on behalf of the Orenburg Philharmonic. A stable line-up was formed which lasted for two years, Sergey Sarychev on vocals and keyboards, Sergey Vlasov on guitar (ex-Magnet member), and Mikhail Samofalov on guitar (ex-Second Half member), alongside Edward Prediger on bass guitar, and Andrey Baranov on drums. The group toured inside the USSR, almost amounting to nearly 70 concerts a month and did not form any new albums. In 1988, in the wake of commercial success and in connection with the production of a new project, Sarychev left Alpha and began to compose pop songs for his wife, singer Marina Zhuravleva. Both subsequently emigrated to the United States. Eduard Prediger became the new soloist, and in 1993, the de facto leader of the Alpha group, already in the post-Sarychev period, left and implemented his solo project Eduard Kide, having released two albums at the Soyuz studio called 'Don't be Sad Baby' in 1993, and 'Long-Awaited Dream' in 1994.
In 2013, especially for the 30th anniversary of Alpha, the leading Russian label, the Mirumir Music Publishing House, released 3 tapes with old recordings from Alpha, under license and production from Sarychev himself. For the first time, leading Moscow sound engineer Evgeny Gapeev prepared the 3 tapes, remastered in accordance with the latest modern technology, in all 3 editions. The first release was a jubilee collection of recordings from 1983 to 1986, and the second is the legendary magnetic album Alpha-2, otherwise known as Running. And finally, the third on New Year's Eve saw the light of the legendary magnetic album Alpha-1, known as Reveller, which created all the ideas about Soviet rock music even before the creation of Vekstein's "Aria".
Facts
Alpha's first album was recorded at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As Sarychev recalls, “these were working recordings from rehearsals. Vladimir Musin, a former sound engineer for Mashina Vremeni, was then in charge of the equipment at the Foreign Ministry. We made a group "Alpha". Vova (Musin) is a cunning person, a businessman by nature, and he quickly recorded all our rehearsals. And literally two days later Alpha sounded at all Moscow discos, I didn't even know about it! And Musin told us then that supposedly someone had stolen our records...” While listening to the album (even on very good equipment) some words sounded indistinctly or completely incomprehensible. Quite differently, well-worked and professionally, Alpha is heard at a concert of the same line-up, the preserved recording of which has already been mentioned.
Drummer Sergei Efimov also recalled working together with Sarychev in Moscow: “...They paid me exactly five rubles from the concert. That is, one concert is equal to five rubles! It was 1985. I had at least ten kopecks in my pocket every day. It happened that we walked in the metro for five kopecks altogether.”
All the musicians who took part in the recording of the albums of Alpha before leaving Sarychev's group later took part in other projects: Vladimir Kholstinin and Vitaly Dubinin in Aria. Alik Granovsky and Igor Molchanov in Aria, and then in The Master. Sergei Efimov became the drummer for Cruise, and Vitaly Bondarchuk became the keyboard player for Mirrors of the World and Rondo, and collaborated with Igor Talkov. Sergei Safonov became the drummer for the New Testament/Sabotage group. With the exception of Bondarchuk, the rest of the musicians began to play metal, although Sarychev himself moved away even from hard rock.
In the 1996 editions of the Home CD and Moroz Records CD the Alpha-1 album differs in the order of the songs in the tracklist. According to tradition in the musical environment, numbered albums were released either under Latin or Arabic numerals (I-1, II-2, etc.), or had an original name suggested by authors or publishers, or were unofficially named after the first composition of the album. The Mirumir Music Publishing House, republishing already in 2013-2014 the Alpha 1 album with the marks “Official Release” and “Under the License of Sergey Sarychev” (MIR 100414) in the original order of compositions, thereby legitimized the popular name of the album “Gulyaka”, and the previous release of this label called "Alpha & Sergei Sarychev" (MIR 100382), released specially for the 30th anniversary of the group, with the suggestion of sound engineer Evgeny Gapeev, who worked on this release. Thus, the albums were not referred to as their original names, instead, Alpha 2 was not called Bega, but Shores, and Alpha-3 as Sparrow. Only the 1996 release of Alpha-4 of the Moroz Records Label (MR 96156 CD) was released under the original title Warm Wind.
Many musicians worked with Sergei Sarychev, but the restless position of the group forced them to leave.
Discography
- 1983 - Team Alpha (Live) (CD - 2012 "Concert at the Meridian Palace of Culture", "Studio A", SA-778);
- 1983 - Alpha 1 (Billboard) (CD - 1996 "Reveler", "Home CD", HCD 96 001-2, and Moroz Records, dMR 30200CD);
- 1984 - Alpha 2 (Shores) (CD - 1996 "Running", "Home CD", HCD 96 002-2);
- 1985 - Alpha 3 (Sparrow) (CD - 1996 "Alpha 3", "Moroz Records", MR 96155 CD);
- 1986 - Alpha 4 (Warm Wind) (CD - 1996 "Warm Wind", "Moroz Records", MR 96156 CD);
- 1987 - Alpha 5 (Wind of Wanderings) (CD - 2011 "Wind of Wanderings", "Studio A", SA-823);
- 1987 - Panorama-86 (Festival of popular youth music) (2LP - 1987 "Panorama-86", "Melody", C60 24863 000 and C60 25131 003);
- 1990 - If you love - you don't love (CD - 1995 "Alpha", "RDM Records", CDRDM 504082);
- 1991 - Group Alpha (If you love - you don't love) (LP - 1991 “Group Alpha”, “Melody”, C60 32045/46 003);
- 1997 - Insidious deceiver (CD - 1997 "Insidious deceiver", "ZeKo Records", ZD-311);
- 2013 - Sergey Sarychev's Alpha (Collection of the best hits for the 30th anniversary of the group) (LP - 2013 “Sergey Sarychev's Alpha”, “Mirumir”, MIR 100382-A / B);
- 2013 - Running (LP - 2014 "Running", "Mirumir", MIR 100391-A / B);
- 2014 - Reveler (LP - 2014 Reveler, Mirumir, MIR 100414-A / B).
References
External links
- [1] Unofficial site, devoted to Alpha and its members.
- [2] Unofficial site, Music of the '70s & '80s Alpha
- [3] Site devoted to Alpha
- - What Is Alpha Group?
- [4] Unreleased Album, Most of the songs in this video, and probably all that were performed at the concerts of Alpha group in 1986–88, were planned to be recorded by S. Sarychev in the 5th album of Alpha. But, due to the tight schedule of concert performances, and as a result, with the departure of S. Sarychev from Alpha, these plans for 1987–88. did not come true. In this video, these songs are collected so that listeners can enjoy them performed by gr. Alpha by Sergei Sarychev.
- [5] 2nd Album by Alpha, known as Alpha-2 or Running (Bega, Russian: Бега)
- [6] 3rd Album by Alpha, known as Alpha-3 or Sparrow (Vorobey, Russian: Воробей)
- [7] 4th Album by Alpha, known as Alpha-4 or Warm Wind (Tyoplyy Veter, Russian: Тёплый ветер)
- [8] Sergey Sarychev's official Youtube channel.
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