Kino (band)

This article is about the Russian rock band. For the British progressive rock band, see Kino (UK rock band).

Kino Кино
Yuri Kasparyan (seated) and Viktor Tsoi (standing) photographed in 1987 during a concert in Leningrad
Background information
Origin	Leningrad, Soviet Union
Genres	Rock, alternative rock, New Wave, post-punk
Years active	1981–1990
Labels	MOROZ Records
Past members	Viktor Tsoi (deceased) Yuri Kasparyan Igor Tikhomirov Georgiy Guryanov

Kino (Russian: Кино́ "film", also "cinema", often written uppercase, КИНО; pronounced [kiˈno]) - an iconic soviet post-punk band headed by Viktor Tsoi. It was one of the most famous rock groups in the Soviet Union.

History

The band was formed in the summer of 1981 in Leningrad, Soviet Union (now Saint Petersburg, Russia) as rock band Garin i Giperboloidy (Garin & The Hyperboloids, after Aleksei Nikolaevich Tolstoi's novel The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin) and initially consisted of Tsoi, Aleksei Rybin and Oleg Valinskiy. A year later, the name of the band was changed to Kino. Since rock music was considered a "bourgeois style" in the former Soviet Union and viewed as undesirable by the government, Kino, like the other rock bands of the time, performed only in semi-underground clubs and at private apartments (kvartirniks).

In the summer of 1982, Kino's first album 45 (named for its length in minutes) was recorded as a collaboration with the band Aquarium. The album was distributed through underground channels and afforded the group broader exposure and increased popularity.

The band's first real hit was the album Noch released in 1986; some songs from this and the two previous albums were included in the Red Wave: 4 Underground Bands from the Soviet Union compilation disc released in the USA in 1986.

At the beginning of the Perestroika era, the band gained increased prominence, and the 1988 album Gruppa Krovi (Blood Type), together with the film Needle (Игла, Igla), which starred Tsoi, brought the band to the pinnacle of its popularity.

During the next two years, the band released another album and did shows in the Soviet Union and abroad, attracting enormous audiences, until August 15, 1990, when Tsoi died in a car accident near Riga. The tape with the vocal track for the new album survived the accident. The album was completed by the rest of the band and released in 1990 without a title, though it is commonly referred to as Chyorniy Albom (i.e. The Black Album) since it has a cover that is entirely black.

The band's popularity in the Soviet Union was so extraordinarily high that after Tsoi's death, graffiti reading “Цой жив!” ("Tsoi is alive!") and “КИНО” appeared on walls, sidewalks, and other public areas throughout the country. Writing these words became a kind of a memorial ritual among fans of the band. Even today the slogan occasionally surfaces in urban graffiti and may be commonly found on indoor walls written in permanent marker or scratched into the plaster.

All Kino songs were written by Viktor Tsoi. His lyrics are characterized by a poetic simplicity. The ideas of liberty were present (one song was named "Mother Anarchy") but, on the whole, the band's message to the public was not overly or overtly political, except for the recurring theme of freedom. Their songs largely focused on man's struggle in life and dealt with such overarching themes as love, war, and the pursuit of liberty. Elements of daily life are also embedded in Kino's vocabulary (for instance, there is a song about the elektrichka, a commuter train many suburbanites use daily).

Band members

• Viktor Tsoi (Виктор Цой) – lead singer and guitarist (1981–1990)
• Yuri Kasparyan (Юрий Каспарян) – lead guitar (1983–1990)
• Igor Tikhomirov (Игорь Тихомиров) – bass (1986–1990)
• Georgiy Guryanov (Георгий Гурьянов) – drums (1983–1990)

Discography

Main article: Kino discography

External links

• Needle (Igla) at the Internet Movie Database
• Kino discography at MusicBrainz
• Russian music on the Net: Kino, English translations of the lyrics