King and the Jester (album)

After the release of the first numbered album “ A stone on the head ”, the group decided to rewrite their earlier songs at a professional studio. Recording company “Kuritsa Records”, with which it was recorded “Stone on the head”, did not want to further promote the work of “King and the Jester” and the group had to look for a new label. The director of the group, Dmitry “Noisy” Zhuravlev, agreed to record a new album at DDT Records, located in the basement of Zheleznodorozhnikov Palace of Culture.

Most of the tracks included in the album “The King and the Jester” were previously published on the 1993 short-run non-volume albums “The True Killer ” and “Be at Home, Traveler ...” 1994. The musicians decided to give these songs not only a new life, but also to re-record them with a clearer sound - hard and "bold". The implementation of this idea was facilitated by the excellent guitar combos available by DDT Records, as well as the studio's sound engineer Igor Sorokin, nicknamed Golden Ears. In particular, at his suggestion, small keyboard parts were included in the songs “The Hunter”, “The Story of a Dead Woman” and “Jack and Queen”. The bulk of the arrangements of the songs have not undergone significant changes compared to previous versions. During the recording of the album, drummer Alexander “Poruchik” Shchigolev lost interest in the group for some time, often missed rehearsals, so the drums on the record left much to be desired. To get a denser sound when mixing the album, the volume of the guitar and bass was increased.

During the recording of the album, DDT musicians often visited the studio, who helped, if not with advice, then with friendly participation. By the end of the recording of the album, the musicians of “The King and the Jester” learned from Igor Dotsenko that the DDT Theater company, which distributes DDT audio tapes, underestimates sales data several times and, accordingly, transfers significantly less royalties to the group. Sales of the new album "The King and the Jester" should also be engaged in "Theater DDT". The members of the collective did not like this state of affairs and after the end of the recording of the album they decide to break the contract with this company. The musicians took back 15,000 cassettes that had been printed at that time and, with the help of their father Mikhail Gorshenyov, began distributing them to stores. Yuri Mikhailovich Gorshenyov on his "Volga" transported and sold all music tapes to music stores. Soon the director of the group Dmitry “Shumnny” Zhuravlev found a small music store “Caravan”, to which the group was able to sell the rights to release the album for $ 10,000. A new cassette run was released on Caravan Recods. An album was released on CD only a year later, and the disks were made in the basement of the Caravan store by recording on a regular computer. The print design of these discs was of poor quality. Prior to reissue in 2000, the record was sold in only one “Caravan” store in St. Petersburg and therefore was not widely distributed.

All texts were written by Andrei Knyazev , all music was written by Mikhail Gorshenev , except for those noted.

Musicians

• Mikhail "Pot" Gorshenyov - vocals;
• Andrey "Prince" Knyazev - vocals;
• Yakov Zvirkunov - guitar, backing vocals;
• Alexander "Balu" Balunov - bass, backing vocals;
• Alexander "Lieutenant" Schigolev - drums.

Technical staff

• Igor Sorokin - recording and mixing
• Artist - Andrey Knyazev
• Design - Julia Kostareva

List of Songs

1. Two friends
2. Dead Man's Boots
3. Forester (Be at home, traveler)
4. Panic in the village
5. Dragon Tale
6. Puppet show
7. Father and masks
8. Vyacheslav
9. Good trolls
10. Old friends

Members

• Mikhail "Pot" Gorshenyov - vocals
• Alexander “Balu” Balunov - guitar , backing vocals , vocals (2-4, 7, 9, 10)
• Dmitry "Ryabchik" Ryabchenko - bass , backing vocals (2, 4, 6, 9, 10)
• Alexey "Berry" Gorshenyov - drums
• Pasha and Denis (musicians of the Awesome band) - remastering bonus tracks
• Mikhail Kolchugin - recording and mixing
• Sergey Zhitskov - mastering

Interesting Facts

• All drums in the album “Make yourself at home, Traveler” in 1994 was performed by Denis Mozhin, who is also Dance - the current drummer of the Leningrad band.
• Andrei Knyazev also did not participate in the recording of this album, since at the time of recording he was in the army. Instead of Andrei, Alexander Balunov sang at concerts.
• The first, "self-published" version of the album, distributed at concerts by the group itself, contained 11 tracks, but the song "Maria" did not get into the final version.
• In June 1996, a low-budget video clip for the song “Forester” was shot from the album as part of the Rusty Wires television festival.
• In 2017, the album was released on a vinyl record with limited editions, which includes the early recordings of 1993, including the song “Motorcycle”, recorded in February 1996 ^[1] .

• Album page at of. group site