Andrei Tropillo
Andrei Tropillo Андрей Тропилло | |
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| Background information | |
| Born | 21 March 1951 Leningrad, RSFSR, USSR |
| Occupation(s) | musician, sound engineer, producer, publisher |
Andrei Vladimirovich Tropillo (Template:Lang-ru; 21 March 1951, Leningrad) is a Soviet and Russian record producer, music publisher, sound engineer, founder of the label AnTrop ("АнТроп"), and rock musician.
Biography
Tropillo first became involved in the Soviet rock scene in the 1970s. In 1976, he initially attempted to set up a small record factory in a room rented from his then-employer, the Geophysics department of Leningrad University. He also organized concerts for several bands, including Mashina Vremeni, and used the income to buy technical equipment for sound recording.[1] Tropillo later started working part-time at the House of Pioneers in the Krasnogvardeysky District of Leningrad, teaching members of the Young Pioneers about sound recording and giving guitar lessons.[2] This position afforded him better access to sound equipment and allowed him to develop a studio.[1]
Tropillo began to invite local rock bands to record in the House of Pioneers, starting with Aquarium and Mify (Template:Lang-ru).[1] From 1979 to 1985, the albums of such groups as Mashina Vremeni, Aquarium, Zoopark, Kino, and Alisa were recorded in his unofficial studio, AnTrop. From 1980 to 1986, Tropillo and Aquarium worked together to record ten albums.[2] Albums were initially distributed as magnitizdat.[2] Tropillo would distribute master copies to recording cooperatives on reel-to-reel tapes, which were then re-copied and distributed to other cooperatives across the country.[1]
In 1985, Tropillo was dismissed from his role at the House of Pioneers and his studio was closed. He temporarily stored his equipment at the Leningrad Rock Club, before setting up a new AnTrop studio. The 1986 compilation album Red Wave, released in the USA, was composed of tracks recorded in Tropillo's studio, although Tropillo was not credited by name.[2]
In 1987, Tropillo started working at Melodiya.[1] He brought over several of the master tapes recorded in his old studio and made them available to the label, sometimes without the permission of the musicians involved.[2] In his position at Melodiya, Tropillo was able to officially release some of his previously made recordings as LPs.[1] In 1989, he became the director of the Leningrad branch of Melodiya.[2]
In 1991, the St. Petersburg Evangelical-Lutheran Church became the new home of the AnTrop label.[1] From here, Tropillo released copies of albums by Western rock bands such as The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Sonic Youth, taking advantage of gaps in the Russian intellectual property laws at the time.[1][3] He would make alterations to the record covers to circumvent copyright laws. On the sleeve of the AnTrop release of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Karl Marx is replaced by the Russian Beatles fan Kolya Vasin and Tropillo's face is inserted in the top row.[4] In his interview for the BBC Storyville documentary How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin, Tropillo stated: "I support not copyright but copyleft. Because I'm sure that in Russia we should support musical piracy, because musical piracy was the key to have freedom in Russia, to have free information."[5]
Discography
| Year | Role | Album | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | Compiler | Den' rozhdeniya (Template:Lang-ru) | Mashina Vremeni |
| 1979 | Compiler | Malen'kii prints (Template:Lang-ru) | Mashina Vremeni |
| 1980 | Sound engineer | Proschai, chyornaya subbota (Template:Lang-ru | Yuri Stepanov (keyboardist of Mify) |
| 1981 | Compiler | Moskva — Leningrad (Template:Lang-ru) | Mashina Vremeni |
| 1981 | Sound engineer | Doroga domoi (Template:Lang-ru) | Mify (Template:Lang-ru) |
| 1981 | Sound engineer | Sinii albom (Template:Lang-ru) | Aquarium |
| 1981 | Studio sound engineer | Istoria Akvariuma. Tom II. Elektrichestvo (Template:Lang-ru) | Aquarium |
| 1981 | Sound engineer, musician (flute, backing vocals) | Treugol'nik (Template:Lang-ru) | Aquarium |
| 1982 | Sound engineer | Nesostoyavshiisya kontsert (Template:Lang-ru) | Andrey Makarevich |
| 1982 | Sound engineer | Dym (Template:Lang-ru) | Piknik |
| 1982 | Sound engineer | Taboo (Template:Lang-ru) | Aquarium |
| 1982 | Sound engineer | Istoria Akvariuma. Tom I. Akustika (Template:Lang-ru) | Aquarium |
| 1982 | Sound engineer, musician (flute, backing vocals) | 45 | Kino |
| 1982 | Sound engineer, musician (flute, backing vocals) | Strasti po Innokentiyu (Template:Lang-ru) | Olga Pershina |
| 1982 | Sound engineer for parts of the recording | Еxercises | Vladimir Chekasin, Sergey Kuryokhin, BG |
| 1983 | Sound engineer (mobile studio MCI) | Radio Africa (Template:Lang-ru) | Aquarium |
| 1983 | Sound engineer | Vchera i pozavchera v uezdnom gorode N (Template:Lang-ru) | Zoopark |
| 1983 | Sound engineer (mobile studio MCI) | Zal ozhidaniya (Template:Lang-ru) | Manufaktura (Template:Lang-ru) |
| 1983 | Sound engineer for parts of songs (mobile studio MCI) | Metamorfozy (Template:Lang-ru) | Strannye Igry |
| 1983 | Sound engineer | Kolyosiko (Template:Lang-ru)
(Note: the album was not distributed) |
Vladimir Levy (leader of Tamburin) |
| 1984 | Sound engineer | Tanets volka (Template:Lang-ru) | Piknik |
| 1984 | Sound engineer | Den' Serebra (Template:Lang-ru) | Aquarium |
| 1984 | Sound engineer | MCI (compilation of songs recorded forTaboo but not included on the original album)[6] | Aquarium |
| 1984 | Sound engineer, arrangements, musician (flute) | Belaya polosa (Template:Lang-ru) | Zoopark |
| 1984 | Sound engineer | Nachal'nik Kamchatki (Template:Lang-ru) | Kino |
| 1985 | Sound engineer | Zhuk na rascheske (Template:Lang-ru)
(Note: the album was not distributed) |
Tamburin (Template:Lang-ru) |
| 1985 | Sound engineer | Ublyuzh'ya dolya (Template:Lang-ru) | Oblachnyi krai (Template:Lang-ru) |
| 1985 | Sound engineer, musician (saxophone) | Shestvie ryb (Template:Lang-ru) | Televizor |
| 1985 | Sound engineer, musician (flute, backing vocals), dramatization | Energiya (Template:Lang-ru) | Alisa |
| 1986 | Sound engineer | Stremya i lyudi (Template:Lang-ru) | Oblachnyi krai |
| 1986 | Sound engineer, musician (backing vocals) | Deti Dekabrya (Template:Lang-ru) | Aquarium |
| 1986 | Sound engineer, musician (flute, backing vocals) | Noch' (Template:Lang-ru) | Kino |
| 1986 | Sound engineer, musician (backing vocals) | Smotri v oba (Template:Lang-ru) | Strannye Igry |
| 1986 | Sound engineer | Muzyka drachyovykh napil'nikov (Template:Lang-ru) | Nol' (at the time of release, Nulevaya Gruppa) |
| 1987 | Sound engineer | BlokAda (Template:Lang-ru)
Recorded on Tropillo's 8-track and in the 24-track Melodiya mobile studio[6] |
Alisa |
| 1987 | Compiler | Ottepel' (Template:Lang-ru)
(Note: concert recording of the festival in Shushary, different from the studio album published in 1991) |
DDT |
| 1987 | Sound engineer (mobile studio MCI) | Glasnost' (Template:Lang-ru) | Ob'ekt Nasmeshek (Template:Lang-ru) |
| 1987 | Sound engineer (mobile studio MCI) | Reagan Provocateur (Template:Lang-ru) | Avtomaticheskie Udovletvoriteli |
| 1987 | Sound engineer (mobile studio MCI) | Muzyka dlya mertvykh (Template:Lang-ru) | Televizor |
| 1987 | Sound engineer | Kamni Sankt-Peterburga (Template:Lang-ru)
(Note: album finished at Andrei Sokolov’s home studio) |
Nikolai Korzinin |
In addition to rock groups, Tropillo produced recordings of the following jazz musicians:
- Sergey Kuryokhin
- Vladimir Chekasin
- Valentina Ponomaryova
- the duo Vladislav Makarov and Aleksandr Kondrashkin (1984)
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Steinholt, Yngvar Bordewich (2005). Rock in the reservation : songs from Leningrad Rock Club 1981-86. Mass Media Music Scholars' Press. ISBN 978-0-9701684-3-6.
- ^ a b c d e f McMichael, Polly (2009-07-01). "Prehistories and Afterlives: The Packaging and Re-packaging of Soviet Rock". Popular Music and Society. 32 (3): 331–350. doi:10.1080/03007760902985791. ISSN 0300-7766. S2CID 192072681.
- ^ Bohlen, Celestine (1993-07-02). "No Headline". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
- ^ "Битлз - Оркестр клуба одиноких сердец сержанта Пеппера. Револьвер (Antrop П91 00117)". www.beatlesvinyl.com.ua. 2015-02-01. Archived from the original on 2009-05-16. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
- ^ Woodhead, Leslie (2009-11-08). "How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin". Storyville. 40:54 minutes in. BBC.
- ^ a b Troitsky, Artemy (1988). Back in the USSR : the true story of rock in Russia. The Archive of Contemporary Music. Boston: Faber and Faber. pp. 147–148. ISBN 9780571129973.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
External links
- Andrei Tropillo discography at Discogs
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