"Sister Chaos" ("Sestra Khaos") was released Feb. 15 on Moscow's Soyuz label. The contract with Soyuz, one of the staples of Russian music industry, was signed in December and also includes the rights to 20 albums from Akvarium's back catalogue, which the band won back from its former label Triarios (now Musical Express) last year.
"We chose Soyuz because we had a feeling that it won't break up in the next six months," says Akvarium's founder Boris Grebenshchikov. "Secondly, [we think] that they will want to sell [the album], that it will be available. To me, this has always been the most essential thing - that people in Siberia and Vladivostok or wherever be able to buy it."
Grebenshchikov argues that "Pentagonal Sin" (Pyatiugolny Grekh) - 2000's collaboration between Akvarium and several local rock and pop singers, put out under the collective name Terrarium - was a flop because Kvadro, a lesser-known Moscow label, did not promote it. For the new album, Akvarium tried to capture the spirit of the times by concentrating on songs written - or, in two cases, finished - in 2001. During the recording sessions, which extended from January to December last year, the band originally tried working with producer Andrei Samsonov and mixing the recordings in a London studio with Paul Kendall, but ended up producing the album by themselves in St. Petersburg.
The result is an impressive 40-minute album that starts with the harsh, angst-laden song "500" and ends with the tranquil "Northern Flower" (Severny Tsvet), featuring very diverse tracks in between - notable among them the surreal "Leg of Fate" (Noga Sudby) and the ironic reggae number "Rastas From the Provinces" (Rastamany iz Glubinki).
While poetic images abound, the album startles every now and again with references to the reality of contemporary Russian life, including, for instance, references to Gazprom and Lukoil.
"I know the realities behind [such references], but I operate with the language that people speak in the streets. Or rather, that language operates with me," says Grebenshchikov. "There's no attempt to put down any of these organizations. The thing is that they are part of some puzzle, some picture that I am as free to interpret as anyone else. Only I won't ever want to interpret it."
"Sister Chaos" also contains contributions from two talented world-music artists. "Ford the River" (Vbrod) and "Leg of Fate" feature young Uzbek singer Sevara Nazarkhan, who records on Peter Gabriel's Real World label. "Northern Flower" features a duduk, the traditional Armenian woodwind instrument, played by the internationally renowned Djivan Gasparyan, who said that he would be interested in recording with Akvarium when he played in St. Petersburg last November. Gasparyan is expected to take part in Friday's show.
The show will be Akvarium's first solo concert at Yubilieny since 1995, when the band celebrated its 25th anniversary with a show featuring numerous members from its 1980s lineups. Since then, the band has performed mainly at the smaller Lensoviet Palace of Culture and, occasionally, at the Oktyabrsky Concert Hall.
"I have warm feelings for Yubileiny because I recall [the fall of] 1986," says Grebenshchikov, referring to the band's eight sold-out concerts there from Oct. 28 to Nov. 2 that year, just as Soviet rock was emerging from the underground during perestroika.
When he is in the city, Grebenshchikov searches the Internet for new music from bands such as Sisters of the Dawn and Nickelback. Surprisingly, he is an advocate of Napster-like file-sharing programs, his favorite being Win MX.
Almost all of Akvarium's recordings are available as MP3s on the Internet, in keeping with Grebenshchikov's unorthodox view that his "music must be free." Five of the new album's eight tracks were posted on the Internet even before the CD was released.
Since saxophonist Oleg Sakmarov took a sabbatical from the band in November to join Vyacheslav Butusov's new outfit U-Piter, Akvarium's lineup now includes six members. In addition to Grebenshchikov, who sings and plays guitar, the band consists of keyboardist Boris Rubekin, violinist Andrei Surotdinov, bassist Vladimir Kudryavtsev, percussionist Oleg "Shar" Shevkunov and drummer Albert Potapkin. All of them joined the band in the 1990s.
According to Grebenshchikov, flamboyant guitarist Alexander Lyapin, who played with Akvarium in the 1980s and rejoined briefly in 1997 and 1998, will join the band for three songs on Friday.
Akvarium will play the Yubileiny Sports Palace, 18 Pr. Dobrolyubova, 119-5614, at 7 p.m. on Feb. 22. Tickets cost 300 rubles and are on sale now. The album "Sister Chaos" is out on the Soyuz label. Akvarium's official Web site is http://www.aquarium.ru/ .
by Sergey Chernov
STAFF WRITER
Photo by ALEXANDER BELENKY / SPT
The St. Petersburg Times