RUSSIAN CULTURE ►

RUSSIAN ROCK AND UNDERGROUND

The most comprehensive guide to Russian rock and underground on the Web.

► AGATA KRISTY

This band is the youngest one from all those that influenced Russian Rock, even though they began their music career back in the 1980s in Sverdlovsk. The thing that they helped do is pave the way for darker music, or gothic music. They can easily be considered the first Russian Gothic band. Their sound is somber, hard, and the text and poetry is very pessimistic and depressing.

Two brothers - Vadim and Gleb Samoilov - were the leaders of AGATA KRISTY and they were extremely dedicated. They were so dedicated that after a few short months of playing and creating music, the band finally received attention from the right people in Moscow and Leningrad. Thus they were invited to come along and perform on tour, which allowed them to gain a lot of popularity. In addition to being pioneers in the Gothic scene, they also experimented heavily with electronic equipments and sounds, which was a completely new trend in Russian rock.

The musical style of AGATA KRISTY can be described as post punk and at present they have almost 20 records under their belt. In March 2001, Alexander Kozlov - the author of the most well-known AGATA KRISTY songs and the band's keyboardist - died from a heart attack. Since then, AGATA KRISTY has not had the best of luck. The brothers separated and each started his own career. Now their creative work is not nearly as interesting as the music AGATA KRISTY produced during their "golden era". Such albums as "Decadence", "Pozornaya Zvezda" and "Opium" will always remain the masterpieces of AGATA KRISTY and are extremely worthy of attention.