The temptation of the Holy Aquarium is the “prehistoric” magnetic album of B. Grebenshchikov and A. Gunitsky in 1974 . The record, long considered lost, thanks to the virtual community "Planet Aquarium" was found at the end of 1997 . The album was released on CD in 2001 as part of the collection “ Prehistoric Aquarium ”.
The Temptation of the Holy Aquarium | |
---|---|
Album of Boris and George | |
Date of issue | 2001 |
Recorded by | January - February 1974 |
Genre | Art rock , psychedelic rock , experimental rock , Lo-fi |
Duration | 52:12 |
Label | Triarius |
Content
History
There is still no consensus on the date of recording. On the back cover of the album, released by Triariy, it is written: “Recorded in February 1973 at Leningrad State University at the Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Conduction.” On the official website [1] the record also dates from the year 1973 . In the reference book of Pavel Severov [2] about the album it is written: recorded during the student holidays, 1974 , January - February.
Sound engineer Armen “Marat” Hayrapetyan’s comment:
<...> Events are still here and there, but to link to a specific date is hopeless. I scratched my head, pozagibal fingers, breathed deeply - it still turns out that the "Temptation" - January-February 1973.
Opinion Grebenshchikova:
<...> The album was a perversion of two idiots (BG and George), engaged in the surrealistic “ Ammagamma ”: some incomprehensible stomach sounds, knocks, films backwards, loops, poems, separate verses of songs and phrases. Very funny, but very poorly recorded [3] .
In 1978, Grebenshchikov, under the pseudonym B.Troitsky, recalled the beginning of the Aquarium sound recordings in the samizdat magazine Roxy : “The records appeared later - in the winter of 1974, when Boris and George recorded The Temptation of the Holy Aquarium.”
Despite the estimates of Grebenshchikov himself (“the perversions of two idiots ...”), the “Temptation” is of interest in the musical sense even today - this is perhaps the first experience of creating a conceptual musical work in Soviet Russia . The first album of “Aquarium” is completely non-commercial and, using modern terminology, “unformatted”.
“The temptation of sv. Aquarium ”we wrote together at the Faculty of Applied Mathematics in Smolny - we had not only a studio there, but a space for rehearsals. There we all recorded it together. They wrote on the Dnipro tape recorder - it was like that. They worked for three days, during the recording I played guitar somewhere and sang, although I didn’t really know how to play. This is “My mind is dead”, Boris played along there, and “Song about the buzz”. In one song I even played the bass - “Little Big Waterfall”, and Boris laid the guitars. Used all percussion drums.
The recording used strange voices - a female cry in particular. This is a certain Marina, a girl from our company, we worked with her in a theater studio. We asked her to shout, she shouted, and very successfully. And her husband, Ruslan, said the phrase "What the matter?".
The album did not fit into anything. In no style. And, maybe, if at that time our musical possibilities would be higher, then perhaps all this would not be so interesting. Purposefully doing psychedelia. Boria later said in an interview that this is a perversion of two idiots. In general, the way it is, but still interesting.
- A. Gunitsky
They used for recording: the UM-1 amplifier, the Vorobyov’s mixing console (which had to be re-soldered three times per hour), the home-made speakers, the 9-string Pirin guitar (the first three strings were dual). Non-standard instruments were also used: children's pipes, pianos with buttons stuck into hammers, and the song “Birds and Birds Singing at the Grave of a Sick Mind” (the idea of this composition belongs to Marina Zhitkova) used molten plastic wire, the drops of which whistled past the microphone. The album also had a cover created by Ruslan Sudakov and depicting “Little Big Waterfall”.
Record Members
- " Aquarium ":
- Boris Grebenshchikov - voice , guitar (9-string)
- Anatoly Gunitsky - percussion , voice , bass guitar
- Marina Zhitkova - voice
- Ruslan Sudakov - voice, sound effects
- Sound engineer
- Marat (Armen) Hayrapetyan
Song List
- My mind is dead (A. Gunitsky) (1:36)
- Concept 14 (B. Grebenshchikov) (3:18) - instrumental
- Watch out for trains (B. Grebenshchikov, A. Gunitsky) (0:45)
- Booster in the night (B. Grebenshchikov, A. Gunitsky) (3:11)
- The Okkervil River (A. Gunitsky) (3:31)
- Aria of Shuzni in Love with Djinn (B. Grebenshchikov, A. Gunitsky) (0:43)
- Mochalkin Blues (B. Grebenshchikov) (2:51)
- Poetry (A. Gunitsky) (1:19)
- Guru Panjahai (B. Grebenshchikov, A. Unitsky) (3:06) - instrumental
- Well, what about you? (B. Grebenshchikov, A. Gunitsky) (0:56)
- He came from the foggy distance (B. Grebenshchikov) (1:57)
- I have a sneak. Anthem (B. Grebenshchikov, A. Gunitsky) (3:41)
- Song about Kaif (Song of Vaishvilla) (A. Gunitsky) (3:51)
- Mr. Rautbart (B. Grebenshchikov, A. Gunitsky) (0:16)
- Voice (1:10)
- Fall on the sand (A. Gunitsky) (4:51)
- I am Schizo (A. Gunitsky) (3:19)
- Big Overture for B-mol Quake (B. Grebenshchikov) (0:18) - instrumental
- Small large waterfall (B. Grebenshchikov, A. Gunitsky) (1:05) - instrumental
- La-la-la (B. Grebenshchikov, A. Gunitsky) (1:03)
- The surname is a substance (A. Gunitsky) (0:08)
- Paris (B. Grebenshchikov, A. Gunitsky) (0:50)
- There is someone third in me (A. Gunitsky) (0:46)
- Gruymler Bash (B. Grebenshchikov) (0:15) - instrumental
- For Akhtaraut (B. Grebenshchikov) (2:20) - instrumental
- The Tale of Two Kings (A. Gunitsky) (0:46)
- My mind is dead (A. Gunitsky) (4:08)
- The singing of birds and birds on the grave of a dead mind (B. Grebenshchikov, A. Gunitsky) (0:12) - instrumental
Interesting Facts
- In 1991, a rough list of the songs of the album was published in the first issue of the newspaper Aroks and Shtyor .
- According to the sound engineer Armen "Marat" Hayrapetyan, several other people participated in the recording, but they did not make any sound:
Someone (in my opinion, a gentleman nicknamed Rough - but I don’t remember exactly) kept the wire burning when I recorded the sound of molten metal drops rushing past the microphone (recording of this sound accompanied one of the “poetic” or instrumental compositions as a background). Ruslan really says the phrase “What are you doing?”, But Marina just gave an idea - only I don’t remember whether the recording of the Singing of Birds and Birds itself, or the names for this composition (“Singing of birds and birds on the grave of a dead mind” as far as I remember, the 12-second recording of the sound made by the tape recorder in the rewind mode, but with playback turned on).
- This article lists the songs from the original disc, released in 2001 by the studio Triariy. But the same studio also released a series of five MP3 collections devoted to the Aquarium and Boris Grebenshchikov in the same year. The third compilation presents the album “The Temptation of the Holy Aquarium” with a different (unprocessed) sound quality and a number of differences from the original disc. Despite the fact that the titles of the compositions fully correspond to the original, some instrumental inserts are missing on this disc, and the album does not end with a 12-second recording, but with a 9-minute instrumental, also called “The Singing of Birds and Birds on the Grave of a Dead Mind”.
- Booster ( born booster ) - guitar effect, raising the output level, "light overdrive."
- The Okkervil River (the song was written by A. Gunitsky at the beginning of 1973 in Komarov ) is an artistic image that has nothing in common with the left tributary of the Okhta River . Sound engineer Armen “Marat” Hayrapetyan’s comment:
In the River Okkervil George and Boris themselves stomp. On the record, they retired to the very end of the large hall and from there, cheerfully stamping, began to move onto the stage with microphones. By the way, the recording was a success the first time.
- Shuznya, shuz (jarg. Of. From the English. Shoes) - shoes, shoes.
- “Poetry” is executed later by the BG-band called “Premonition of a Civil War” and without a couplet:
There is a good trait in appearance
She deprives the rose of color.
She's like a gun.
At the covert leaves.
- Bast (zharg. Mouth) - a young girl, of a cheerful disposition, not burdened by mental activity (definition from the film " Assa "). The song " Mochalkin Blues " is the only song from this album that was later re-recorded in the studio. She appeared on the album Triangle in 1981 and on the soundtrack to the film "Assa" in 1987 .
- “Well, and you?” - sung to the tune of a French song about Brother Jacques , who is still sleeping and sleeping, and the bells are ringing.
- “Voice” - used an excerpt from the song “John Henry” performed by Harry Belafte , rolled backwards.
- Kwak - Wah-Wah guitar effect to distort the sound of the guitar.
- “La-la-la” - sung to the tune of a lullaby from the movie “Circus” .
- "Big Overture for B-mol Quake" - Gizer Butler's bass solo on Black Sabbath - NIB (Black Sabbath 1970 album)
Notes
- ↑ Aquarium.ru. Album page on the official website of the group Archival copy of September 23, 2005 on the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Directory of Pavel Severov Archival copy from November 24, 2015 on the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Boris Grebenshchikov - True Aquarium Biography, 1980
Literature
- A. Rybin, A. Kushnir, V. Soloviev-Spassky. Aquarium. Dreams about something bigger. Ed. B. Grebenshchikov - Moscow: "Sofia", 2004.