Master (album)

In 1986, a scandal erupted between members of the Aria team and artistic director Viktor Vekshtein . Two-thirds of the group - bassist Alik Granovsky, guitarist Andrei Bolshakov, drummer Igor Molchanov and keyboard player Kirill Pokrovsky - refused to continue cooperation with Vekstein and began to perform under the name "Master".

By the time Mikhail Seryshev joined the band, the material for the first album was already ready. As part of the new group, the musicians gave a number of tours around the country, after which there was a need to record their own album. The album “Master” was recorded in Moscow in the mobile studio “Tonvagen”, on Stankevich Street, in the yard of the firm “Melody”. Among the musicians, “Tonvagen” was also known as “MCI”. After the Svyaz-80 world exhibition, the Tonvagen studio remained in the USSR , and with the help of it, choirs and orchestras were recorded. However, sometimes the sound engineer Viktor Glazkov recorded on it the soundtracks of famous bands such as the Aquarium , Strange Games , Manufactory and Alice .

In 1988, the first foreign tour of the group. "Master" as part of the Soviet delegation visited concerts in Poland. The concerts took place in Krakow , Gdansk .

• The title track was placed on the second side, since the volume of the record was not allowed to place it on the first side.

The company "Melody" continues to acquaint listeners with the leading representatives of the domestic hard rock. This time, after the “Cruise” and “Black Coffee” CDs, we are dealing with a completely new type of music that was not previously cultivated on our rock scene. This music is very fast and energetic, the change of rhythm here is often completely unexpected and the density of sound is quite high, somewhat higher than the one we are used to. This music is complicated. It is difficult for perception, because it requires special training, and difficult for performance, as it requires musicians to have an unusually high professional level and thorough knowledge of the capabilities of their instruments. It is not by chance that two of the musicians of “The Master” - we are talking about guitar player Andrei Bolshakov and bass guitar player Alexander Granovsky - were named by the readers of the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets among the best instrumentalists of the past year. Experts called the music performed by “Master”, this synthesis of intensive technology and melody, “thrash metal”. The group was formed in 1987 by four experienced musicians on the ruins of "Arias". The reason for the formation of the "Master" was the desire of some musicians of "Aria" to play more modern music, music of today. This record is an example of this. The musical material recorded on it is a kind of retrospective of the short path of the group. From songs taken from the repertoire of "Arias" to more rigid numbers of the first period of the "Master". A few songs included in the record were previously part of the debut track "The Masters". But the group does not stand still, its music is constantly changing in accordance with the requirements of the time, because hard rock also did not stop in its development.

So “Master” is preparing a new program, which will consist entirely of numbers in the “thrash” style. Her business card may well be the song "Master" and "Watch out."

- Alexey Sidorov, 1988

• On the envelope and on the label of the vinyl record Nina Kokoreva (author of the text for the song "Watch out") is recorded as A. Kokareva .