Alyans (band)

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Alyans
From left to right: Mitya Zhuravlev, Igor Zhuravlev, Andrei Tumanov
Background information
Also known as	Alliance
Origin	Moscow, Russia
Genres	Ska Reggae Synthpop New wave Folk rock Post-punk
Years active	1981–1984 1986–1993 2008–present
Labels	Maschina Records
Associated acts	Miss NRG Na Zare 2020
Past members	Sergey Volodin Konstantin Gavrilov Yuri Kistenev Maxim Trefan Inna Zhelannaya Oleg Parastaev

Alyans (Russian: Альянс) or Alliance is a Soviet and Russian rock band formed in 1981 by Igor Zhuravlev, Kostya Gavrilov, Oleg Parastayev and Andrey Tumanov. The band is best known for the 1987 single "Na zare" (Russian: «На заре», lit. 'At dawn').

History[]

Early years (1981–1984)[]

Alyans was formed in 1981 in Moscow at the initiative of guitarist Sergei Volodin. The group initially included Igor Zhuravlev on vocals and guitar, Andrey Tumanov on bass, and Vladimir Ryabov on drums. The group's formation coincided with the beginning of the new wave movement in the Soviet Union. At this time, Alyans played ska and reggae as well as cover versions of Debbie Harry, The Police.^[1]

At the end of 1982, sound engineer Igor Zamaraev heard Alyans at the rock festival "Fiztekh - 1982" (Russian: «Физтех — 1982») in Dolgoprudny and suggested recording an album. The band's first album, Kukla (Russian: «Кукла», lit. 'Doll'), was recorded in 1983 with Zamaraev's assistance. This album contains initial versions of later hits that were re-recorded and included on the 1984 albumYa medlenno uchilsya zhit' (Russian: «Я медленно учился жить», lit. 'I slowly learned to live'). At the same festival, the members of Alyans met the artistic director of the Kostroma Philharmonic, who offered them professional work. A couple of weeks later, Alyans left for Kostroma, with a line-up of Igor Zhuravlev (guitar, vocals), Andrey Tumanov (bass), Sergey Volodin (guitar) and Pavel Chinyakov (drums). The group went on tour under the name Kudesniki (Russian: «Кудесники», lit. 'Wizards'), since the philharmonic's warehouse had unused posters from another group called Kudesniki, which had broken up several months prior to the tour. During the tour, the group performed the songs that they had performed at the festival at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. After concerts in the city of Buy, a commission from Moscow removed Alyans from the tour, citing “the lack of effectiveness of the program”. In the fall of 1984, the group was included in a list of bands prohibited from performing live. As a result of being blacklisted, Alyans was disbanded.^[2]

Reformation (1986–1993)[]

In the fall of 1986, the group appeared in public at the Forum of Creative Youth in the Metelitsa cafe, after which it entered the Moscow Rock Laboratory. Its composition: Igor Zhuravlev (vocals, guitar), Oleg Parastaev (keys), Andrey Tumanov (bass) and Konstantin Gavrilov (keys, programming). In February 1987, the Alliance became the laureate of the first rock laboratory “Festival of Hopes”. The group performed songs such as “Na Zare”, “Give Fire”, and “Falstart”.

The band composed of Zhuravlev and Parastaev lasted until 1988, when it gotten broke up due Zhuravlev deciding to radically change the sound of the band to rock music, which Parastaev, who planned to continue working in the spirit of the “new wave”, opposed and left the band, collecting his own project “New Russian Group” a.k.a “NRG”) (Russian: Новая русская группа, НРГ). Soon, drummer Yuri Kistenev joined the group, which completed the transformation of the Alliance into a rock group. A year later, Sergey Kalachev replaced Andrei Tumanov on bass.

In 1990, the singer Inna Zhelannaya joined the group. Together, they made several concert programs and recorded the album "Made in White". The Alliance at that time worked as follows: Zhuravlev, Maxim Trefan (keyboards, ex - “Polite Refusal”), Yuri “Khen” Kistenev (drums), Konstantin “Castello” Baranov (guitar, ex - “Nikolai Copernicus”), Sergey “Grebstel” Kalachev (bass), Vladimir “Miss” Missarzhevsky (percussion, ex - “Meeting On the Elbe”). Additionally, two musicians who owned ancient folk instruments, Sergey Starostin and Sergey Klevensky, participated in a creative search.

In 1992, Zhelannaya left the stage for some time due to the birth of her son. Then Kistenev went to the "Code of Ethics." Some of the musicians formed the Miss group, in which Missarzhevsky, who became the vocalist, wrote the words and music. The group played experimental music - a mixture of guitar rock and hard funk with rap elements; all songs were in English. The premiere of "Miss" was held in October 1992 at the Gorbunov Palace of Culture. In 1993, the group starred in the program “Program A” and recorded the only album “It's Up To You” (Moroz Records). The band's most famous song is “Sex in the future”.

In 1993, the record “Made in White” at the MIDEM-93 competition in France was named by European producers the best record in Europe in the style of “world music” of this year. The Alliance by that time no longer existed, but was reassembled for a festive tour of Europe.

Reunions (1994–2008)[]

In January 1994, Alliance musicians formed the Farlanders group, led by Inna Zhelannaya, which included Yuri "Khen" Kistenev (drums), Sergey "Grebstel" Kalachev (bass), as well as Sergey Starostin and Sergey Klevensky.^[3]

Since 1990, Sergei Volodin and Andrey Tumanov experimented on their own project, and in 1994 they tried to recreate the Alliance. They were joined by the former trumpeter of the “Brigade S” Yevgeny Korotkov as a keyboard player, and in 1996, drummer Dmitry Frolov, who graduated from the Gnessin School, came. The new Alliance performed big beats in the style of the 1960s. However, this project has not received development.

In 2000, Igor Zhuravlev with new songs appeared in the project of Katya Bocharova "ER-200".

Modern age (2008–present)[]

From 2008, the Alliance regularly gave concerts in Moscow clubs, sometimes in different compositions, based on Igor Zhuravlev and Andrey Tumanov.

In 2018, the ex-keyboardist of the group Oleg Parastaev created a channel on YouTube. In April 2019, Parastaev published a video for the song “At Dawn,” filmed in 1987 which became a viral.^[4][5] In the same month, the album “Wanna Fly!” (Russian: Хочу летать!, lit. 'Hochu letat'!') was released, which was the first release of the team in the last 25 years.^[6][7] Music videos for every album track were released.

On 14 February 2020, the group released the album "Space Dreams" (Russian: Космические сны, lit. 'Kosmicheskiye snuy')^[8] with music videos for "Space Dreams" and "Hey, Man, Superman".

On 20 June 2020, Oleg Parastaev died at the age of 61.^[9]

Discography[]

References[]

External links[]

• Official page on Bandcamp
• Alyans on Discogs
• Alyans at IMDb

See also[]

• Music of the Soviet Union