Boris Grebenshchikov Борис Гребенщиков | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Boris Borisovich Grebenshikov |
| Also known as | BG |
| Born | (1953-11-27)27 November 1953 (age 71) Leningrad,Soviet Union |
| Genres | |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter, musician |
| Instruments |
|
| Years active | 1972–present |
| Website | bg-aquarium |
| Awards | Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" (4th class) |
Boris Borisovich Grebenshchikov (Russian:Борис Борисович Гребенщиков; born(1953-11-27)27 November 1953) is a prominent member of the generation which is widely considered to be the "founding fathers" ofRussian rock music. He is the founder and lead singer of the bandAquarium which has been active since 1972. Grebenshchikov is frequently referred to asBG (Russian:БГ; pronounced "Beh-Geh"), after his initials.
Grebenshchikov was born on 27 November 1953, in Leningrad, nowSt. Petersburg.[1] In 1972, he founded the band Aquarium with his childhood friendAnatoly "George" Gunitsky as a postmodern theatrical endeavor that included poetry and music.[1]
Grebenshchikov was accepted intoLeningrad State University. Due to his musical activities, he started missing exams and failing classes. Grebenshchikov eventually received a graduate degree inapplied mathematics. Inspiration fromThe Beatles andBob Dylan transformed Aquarium into alow-fielectric blues band that moonlighted inacousticreggae.[1]
TheCommunist Party of the Soviet Union regime routinely suppressed experiments in non-standardized self-expression as a matter of policy, so decent recording facilities were out of reach.[citation needed] The several two-track recordings hacked out over those years, such asTemptation of St. Aquarium (Iskushenie Svyatogo Akvariuma),Count Diffusor's Fables (Pritchi grafa Diffuzora),Menuet for a Farmer (Menuet zemledel'tzu), and a motley bag of "singles" were of unprofessional quality but showcased his interest in Oriental thought and mysticism that eventually became his trademarks.
In 1976, Grebenshchikov also recorded of his first solo albumS toy storony zerkal'nogo stekla (Beyond the Mirror Glass) and a double album withMike Naumenko titledAll Brothers-Sisters (Vse brat'ya - sestry).
In 1980,Artemy Troitsky, the first public Russian rock critic, invited Aquarium to perform at theTbilisi Rock Festival.
The festival was a state-sanctioned attempt to control the Russian rock music movement, but the group's performance caused a near riot and was wildly out of line with the Soviet officials’ expectations. A covert KGB-bound report caused Grebenshchikov to lose his day job and membership inKomsomol.
As Western rock music was still officially banned at the time, Aquarium started giving unsanctioned underground concerts at their friends’ apartments, while their music was reaching wider audience among the Soviet youth through bootlegged cassette tapes. During this time, all music had to be vetted by Soviet censors, and only officially sanctioned bands were allowed to perform in public or record in professional recording studios.
The first Aquarium music available in the West was in 1986 when a double album entitledRED WAVE, 4 UNDERGROUND BANDS FROM THE USSR appeared in record stores in the U.S. Besides Aquarium,Kino, Strange Games, andAlisa were recorded on a four-track machine, smuggled out of the country, and released by a small record label fromHollywood.
By the time Aquarium disbanded amid internal discord in 1991, they had 11 official records under their belt.[citation needed]
Perestroika had ushered in a new era of opportunity for rock musicians. In 1989, Grebenshchikov releasedRadio Silence, produced byDave Stewart ofEurythmics fame.[1]Radio Silence featured covers ofAlexander Vertinsky's "China" amid songs by Grebenshchikov, including a song written to SirThomas Malory'sDeath of King Arthur.Annie Lennox,Billy MacKenzie, andChrissie Hynde helped out, as did several of Grebenshchikov's bandmates from Aquarium. The single "Radio Silence" was his biggest hit outside of Russia, reaching number 7 on theBillboard Hot Modern Rock Chart in the United States in August 1989.[2]
He issued another English-language album,Radio London, in 1996, which consisted of demos made in 1990 and 1991.
Grebenshchikov returned to Russia and came out with aRussian album (Russkiy al'bom), backed by the eponymous BG Band, in 1992.
The Aquarium albumFavorite songs of Ramses the 4th (Lyubimye pesni Ramzesa IV) was mostly filler, andArchive vol 4 was all outtakes. The band's next three albums are effectively Grebenshchikov's solo albums published under the band's brand.Navigator,Snow lion (Snezhniy lev), andHyperborea have a stylized Russian feel.
His 1997 albumLilith is still mostly Russian in lyrical theme but is recorded by way of a chance meeting with his idolDylan's former backing group,The Band.
His 1999 albumPsi features an interpretation through a post-modernistic lens with use of keyboard samplers. His 2002 albumSister Chaos (Sestra Haos), 2003 albumFisherman's songs (Pesni rybaka), and 2005 albumZOOM ZOOM ZOOM had Armenian, Indian, and African influences respectively, particularly fromJivan Gasparyan.
In 2014 he releasedSalt, "one of the best albums of Grebenshchikov’s long career, an astonishing, visceral piece of work that more than lives up to its moniker: earthy, vital, biting, life-enhancing".[3]
Since 2005, Grebenshchikov has had a weeklyradio program on Russian radio stationRadio Rossii titledAerostat (Russian:Аэростат).[4] It is presented as "author's program of Boris Grebenshchikov" and he is the creator and speaker.Aerostrat is aboutalternatives in music and the music not played on today's radio despite its artistic value and originality. Grebenshchikov states that it is mostly independent music which would "otherwise would not be played at all."[citation needed] Songs played onAerostat vary from 1960s and 1970s rock (e.g.,The Beatles,Bob Dylan) toreggae,new wave,alternative rock,electronica,punk,world music,jazz,classical, andavant-garde.[5] As of April 2019, more than 700 shows have been created and broadcast, each approximately 46 minutes long. The track lists and the scripts of all programs are available at official site of Aquarium and Grebenshchikov.[4]
Grebenshchikov is known as a student of religion and mysticism. He has translated several Hindu and Buddhist scriptures into Russian, travelled the Orient widely, and made friends with various spiritual celebrities.[citation needed]
Grebenshchikov's published translations of Buddhist and Hindu texts:
On 5 October 2022, Grebenshchikov appeared onBBC Hardtalk talking about his opposition to theRussian invasion of Ukraine, his self-imposed exile to London, and his involvement withDave Stewart to produce an antiwarrecord.
In June 2023, a Moscow court ordered Grebenshchikov to pay 50,000 rubles in fines for alleged "discreditation of the Russian armed forces", related to an interview Grebenshchikov gave on the Israeli television stationChannel 9.[6][7] Grebenshchikov was later declared aforeign agent by the RussianMinistry of Justice.[8]
Over the years of his career, Grebenshchikov has written more than 500 songs. Additionally, he has recorded cover albums on material fromAlexander Vertinsky (Songs of A.Vertinsky (Pesni A.Vertinskogo)) in 1994 andBulat Okudzhava's (Songs of B.Okudzhava (Pesni B.Okudzhavy)) in 1999, two albums of mantra music withGabrielle Roth and the Mirrors, (Refuge in 1998 andBardo in 2002), and an album of electronica versions of Aquarium songs from late 1970s – early 1980s with the Russian duo Deadushki.[citation needed]
| Title | Album details | Charts |
|---|---|---|
| US | ||
| Radio Silence | 198[9] | |
| Radio London |
|
| Year | Title | Chart positions | Album | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| USHot 100 | USModern Rock | USMainstream Rock | UK | |||
| 1989 | "Radio Silence" | – | 7 | 44 | – | Radio Silence |
