“Kino” was probably the most popular band in the USSR in eighties. Nowadays it is still famous and adored by Russian rock fans and even some people that like other genres more. It appeared in 1982 and ended its existence in 1990 because of the death of its leader Viktor Tsoy. A lot of Russian rock bands that started nearly the same time or even earlier are still giving concerts and producing new albums: “Akvarium”, “Alysa”, “Piknik”, “Chayf”, “Mashyna vremeny”. They also create very good songs and have a lot of listeners, but “Kino” is in a league of its own. It became a real legend of Russian rock. Even the people that are “far away” from rock music know the band-name “Kino” and some their songs.
Not only “Kino” but some other of the Russian rock bands also lost their members because of death. In most cases they changed the lineups and continued working. “Kino” wasn’t able to take someone instead of Tsoy. It was impossible to replace him with anyone else. The other Russian rock band that stopped their work with the death of its member was “Nautilus Pompilius”. In 2001 the former leader of “Nautilus Pompilius” Vyacheslav Butusov created “U-Pyter” with Garik Kasparyan from “Kino” and some other musicians. Why was “Kino” such a special band? Why it became a legend? Someone may suppose that it was so because of the early death of Viktor Tsoy. It is not so. The band got great popularity before that tragedy. One of the fame factors may be the fact that Tsoy played in several movies. Though, it was only one of the reasons. There was nothing special in the lineup of the band: two guitars, bass and drums, - but their music… their songs were really special. They were simple, sharp and the whole sound was alike to well-balanced mechanism… even not a mechanism but some surrealistic transport.
As usually, for English speakers who do not understand Russian language, I’d like to show some samples or songs by “Kino” translated to English by me. “White snow and grey ice On the chapped Earth. Also like a crazy quilt There is a city on it. The skies fly over the city They cover the heaven’s light Also there is a smoke The city is two thousand years old… Lived under the star called Sun” “How many songs haven’t written yet? Cuckoo, do tell me! Should I live in a city or in some settlement? Should I rest like a stone, Or burn like the Sun?”
