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Nochnye Snaipery Ночные Снайперы | |
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 Concert in Toronto (May 2018) | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Saint Petersburg,Russia |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 1993–present |
| Labels | Real Records |
| Members |
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| Past members |
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| Website | snipers.net |
Nochnye Snaipery (Russian:Ночные Снайперы,lit. 'Night Snipers') is aRussian rock group. It was founded in 1993 as an acoustic female duo ofDiana Arbenina andSvetlana Surganova. Arbenina and Surganova playedguitar andviolin respectively, sharing the vocal and songwriting duties evenly, eventually adding amplification to the band. Since its inception, the band has participated in a variety of Russian musical festivals — from the underground (such as Babye Leto and Moguchaya Kuchka) to the major events (Nashestvie,Maxidrom, Krylya), as well as touring extensively domestically and abroad.
The band's best known singles are "Tridtsat Pervaya Vesna" ("31st Spring"), "Rubezh" ("Frontier"), "Stolitsa" ("Capital"), "Asfalt" ("Asphalt"), and "Aktrisa" ("Actress"). The majority of the songs in the band's repertoire is written by Arbenina and Surganova, but some use the poetry of such famous authors asJoseph Brodsky,Anna Akhmatova, andFederico García Lorca.
In 2002, Svetlana Surganova left the band to create her own groupSurganova i Orkestr ("Surganova and Orchestra"), and Arbenina remained as Nochnye Snaipery's lead vocalist.[1]
The official date of Nochnye Snaipery's creation can be considered August 19, 1993 when Diana Arbenina and Svetlana Surganova met inSaint Petersburg. Soon afterwards, they performed as an acoustic duo at the Second All-Russian Bard Song Festival, after which Arbenina returned to her home city ofMagadan, and the creative project was placed on hiatus.
In November 1993, Surganova moved to Magadan, and for the remainder of the academic year, the duo gave concerts at a local casino "Imperial" and at theMagadan University, where Arbenina was a student at the time. They also recorded a series of home concerts, given for the benefit of friends and relatives. These early recordings are quite sought out by the fans of the band. It is anecdotally accepted that the name "Nochnye Snaipery" was chosen after Arbenina and Surganova were walking to public transportation after a gig, carrying a guitar and a violin in their cases, and were accosted by a man wanting to know if they were walking "to hunt or from a hunt," thinking their instruments were shotguns.
In May 1994, Nochnye Snaipery won a regional round of the All-Russian Musical Competition "Student Spring" and traveled west toSamara for the finals, eventually moving back to St. Petersburg. While based there, the duo continued an active life of gigs, songwriting, underground performances, etc., building a loyal following. In 1996, Nochnye Snaipery took their first trip outside ofRussia to attend a student festival inDenmark. Two books of their texts were published in the same year -Цель ("Goal") andДрянь (Rotter) (called "anti-songs" by the authors.)
In February 1997, Arbenina and Surganova added amplification to the acoustic guitar and violin and collaborated with the drummers from the St. Petersburg band Soyuz Kommertcheskogo Avangarda ("The Union of Commercial Avant-Garde"), Yura Degtyaryov and Alexei Ivanov, as well as with the guitar soloist Denis Doulitsky from the band Vacuum'.
In June 1997, Nochnye Snaipery debuted on the Internet. Getting more notoriety, Arbenina and Surganova sought help from the bands Ulme and Kuzya-band in recording some of their songs, which later would make up the albumDetskiy Lepet ("Child's Babble"), published in 1999.
After graduating from university, Arbenina and Surganova devoted all of their attention to professional music. In the summer of 1998, they used an auditorium at the St Petersburg Zoo to record their first official albumKaplya Diogtia/V Botchke Meda ("Drop of tar/In a barrel of honey"), which was sold on audio tapes. They also acquired a manager (Svetlana Loseva) who organized the band's participation at the Sirin festival of female vocalists held inTyumen. Loseva also introduced Nochnye Snaipery tobassist Igor Kopylov anddrummer Albert Potapkin, musicians from the iconic Russian rock groupNautilus Pompilius, who began to perform with the band. By early 1999, Nochnye Snaipery were in rotation on radio and television in St Petersburg, and in May 1999, they had their first performance inMoscow. Their first official website debuted that spring.
The sound of the early Nochnye Snaipery is quite unusual in its choice of violin (and sometimesflute) layered on the guitar riffs and rhythms, growing out of the acoustic traditions of Russianbards, and evoking some traditions ofgypsy music, as well as some parallels withcountry music. The song content concerns mostly love and loss, and could be compared to earlyAni DiFranco without the political overtones.
In 2000, Albert Potapkin left the group, to be replaced by Ivan Ivolga and Sergei Sandovsky. Nochnye Snaipery gave their first real international concerts inGermany andUnited States, where the group's popularity was assured by the large numbers of immigrant youth. After recording the albumRubezh ("Frontier"), their single "Tridtsatpervaya Vesna" ("31st Spring") entered rotation at one of the best known Russian radio stations,Nashe Radio, and by the fall of 2000, everyone in Russia had heard of the Nochnye Snaipery.[2] By December 2000, the group was signed byReal Records.[citation needed]
The group spent 2001 touring around Russia and theFormer Soviet Union. Dmitry Gorelov joined the band as the new drummer, and the albumZhivoi ("Alive") was recorded during a Christmas concert at "Barmalei" Club.[citation needed]
The recording forTsunami began inKyiv in 2002, and proved to be fatal to the duo. A couple of days after the official release of the album in December 2002, Svetlana Surganova left the group, to later start a solo career with Surganova i Orkestr. Other events of note in 2002 included two tours ofIsrael and two large acoustic concerts – inMoscow Art Theatre and St. Petersburg'sLensovet Theatre. Dmitry Chestnykh joined the group as the new bassist, and another book of Surganova/Arbenina poetry was published -Patrontash.[citation needed]
TheFrontier/Tsunami period is much more grown up in its sound and structure. Political themes and questions about meaning of life make appearances in the lyrics; "Tridtsatpervaya Vesna" is to day possibly being the best known single of the group. The vocal structure is more dominated by Diana Arbenina, while in the early years the women sang about 50 percent of the repertoire in turn. The sound becomes harsher, more rock-oriented, with hard-driving drum lines and stylistic experiments.[citation needed]
Surganova's departure called for a radical change in the musical style of the band – instead of replacing the string instruments with another musician, Nochnye Snaipery acquired a keyboardist (first Alexei Samarin, then Airat Sadykov). February 2003 saw the band give their largest yet concert at the famous Moscow sports arenaLuzhniki. A new acoustic albumTrigonometriya ("Trigonometry") was recorded during a concert at Moscow Art Theatre in May 2003. The band's 10th anniversary was celebrated with a large concert and a party at the B2 club.
In the summer of 2004, Nochnye Snaipery performed at the "Russian Rock Night" festival inBerlin, and soon thereafter released a new electric albumSMS. However, they carried on the acoustic tradition during concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg titledSuperakustika ("Superacoustics").
In 2005, Diana Arbenina received a prestigious independent Russian awardTriumph "for achievements in literature and the arts". In that same year Nochnye Snaipery collaborated with two very different musicians – Japanese pop musicianKazufumi Miyazawa and Russian rock groupBi-2. The collaboration with Miyazawa was titledSimauta and led to the band's participation inFuji Rock Festival, making them the first Russian group to do so.
Another acoustic album,Trigonometriya 2, was released in 2005, after a recording of a May 2005 concert at the Moscow Art Theatre, and theJapanese version of the albumKoshika was published. In the fall of 2005, Nochnye Snaipery traveled toSwitzerland, kicking off a tradition of yearly tours outside of Russia. Arbenina also published another book of lyrics and anti-songsKatastroficheski.
In early 2006, the albumKoshika was released in Russia, and the band toured the United States and Israel. Diana Arbenina performed in multiple memorial concerts as an acoustic solo musician, includingSvoya Koleya ("Own Track"), commemoratingVladimir Vysotsky andIn MemoriamBulat Okudjava inPeredelkino. In early 2007,Nochnye Snaipery released the albumBonni i Klaid ("Bonnie & Clyde"), which includes some collaborative tracks withBi-2 and draws inspiration from Western themes.
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