Christmas decorations (group)

Alexander Zaitsev arrived in St. Petersburg from Stepnogorsk (Kazakhstan), graduated from the PMPU, the Faculty of Applied Mathematics of the University , and then graduate school with him. Ilya Baramia - grew up in suburban Lomonosov , a graduate of LISI (now the University of Architecture and Civil Engineering). Both had never before engaged in traditional music, immediately starting experiments with electronic sound ^[1] .

It all started in the early 1990s with the guys' fascination with music produced by Warp Records , Ninja Tune and Rephlex . The first independent track “Mice on Moon” was recorded on October 7, 1997 and published as part of the perforation compilation (compiled by journalist and translator Anatoly Kovzhun ^[1] ), published as a double cassette and limited CD on a small St. Petersburg indie- label perforated records.

The next year and a half the musicians conducted experiments on their home studio with all the available equipment ( PC , Boss DR-660, old analog synthesizer ) and occasionally show themselves in small live performances in local clubs (such as Port, Griboedov "). The new material was recorded in the period from March 1998 to February 1999 and was released in a limited edition in the form of a split with the project Tenzor called "Rhythm Manipulation". A year earlier, the Moscow label Art-tek includes the band's composition in the “Artifacts” compilation.

In 2000, the duo released their debut album, EU Soft. After that, they begin work on the new material, which eventually becomes their first vinyl single "Wienn / Srez" (according to NME, the CD was recognized as the best single of the week and twice hit the playlist of the DJ BBC radio program John Saw ^[1] ) and the mini-album "Reframing", which were distributed outside the territory of the post-Soviet space. These works provoked very warm reviews from critics abroad, and “Christmas tree decorations” were sent to the United Kingdom in October 2000, after which proposals from labels such as , , Neo Ouija, Vertical Form and .

In the fall of 2000, EU signed a contract with the Fono company, according to which the album “Improved Planning” was published in October. The material of the album was recorded from March 1998 to February 1999 and was chosen to most adequately present the listener with the earliest pages of the group's work ^[1] . In addition to everything, Sasha and Ilya begin another work with Tenzor as part of a joint project called “Christmas Baubles” and released an album on the . In the fall of 2000, the EU went to London to produce several works by singer Eddie Brik. In addition, they prepared a special concert program together with Eddie Brik and the Russian Chamber Orchestra of London.

In 2001, the band members took part in the VERA project, in which vocalist Vera Gogol ( Iva Nova ) sang ^[1] .

Christmas Tree Toys are becoming more active outside of Russia, despite the fact that travel costs often exceeded the profits from speeches. So the guys, speaking at the Transmediale Festival in January 2003, ended their tour in the UK in March 2003.

On June 17, 2004, they performed at the 16 Tons Club ^[2] . EU begin to collaborate with third-party musicians such as “ 2H Company ”, writing music for their album “ Psycho-Surgeons ” (a combination of indirect IDM-rhythms and categorical social aggression in texts ) ^[2] , released in 2004, and also releasing a joint album “ Electronism (2005) with Stas Baretsky . Also, the group has a side-project “ The Largest Prime Number ”, on which the duet works together with Kirill Ivanov.

Studio Albums

• EU Soft Art-tek (2000)
• Improved Layout (2000) ^[1]
• Reframing PAUSE_2 Recordings (2001)
• Tuner EP PAUSE_2 Recordings (2001)
• Warm Math PAUSE_2 Recordings (2002)
• Tuner (2004) ^[1]
• ^{[3] [4]} SchnurOK (2005) (Together with Stas Baretsky)
• Wild Christmas toys ^[5] Snegiri (2006)
• Today You Become a Rocket Union (2010)
• PCP & ЁU Self-released (2011) (Together with Perforated Cerebral Party )

•   EU-april snow - filmed on April 7, 2007, published April 10 on YouTube channel A. Zaitsev
•   Christmas decorations. Broken Dub - published July 7, 2008 on the official YouTube channel of the label “Snegiri Muzyka”

• Alexander Zaitsev blog
• Christmas toys (group) (English) on the website Discogs