Sergey Kuryokhin

Sergey Anatolyevich Kuryokhin (russian: Серге́й Анато́льевич Курёхин, also transliterated as Sergei Kuriokhin, Sergei Kurekhin, Sergueï Kouriokhine, Sergey Kuriokhin, etc.; nicknamed "The Captain"; 16 June 1954 – 9 July 1996) was a Russian composer, pianist, music director, experimental artist, film actor and writer, based in St. Petersburg, Russia. Former keyboardist for the rock band Aquarium.

Biography

Kuryokhin began his performing career as a piano and keyboard player with a school band in Leningrad. After playing with professional jazz bands, as well as popular rock musicians, Kuryokhin went through several stages in his career and eventually became one of the most recognisable names and faces in Russia during the 1980s and 1990s.

By the end of his life, he had emerged as an avant-garde film composer, performance artist, and film actor. Outside Russia, he is primarily known as a jazz and experimental musician, through his works released since 1981 on UK's Leo Records, as well as his concert tours with Pop-Mechanics. He also contributed to several Aquarium albums, including ', ', and ''Radio Africa''.

His work in film includes starring in and composing music for , a comedic pseudo-documentary about World War I, composing the soundtrack to the neo-noir Russian horror film ''Mister Designer'', and playing the lead role in '' Dude - Water Winner''.

Kuryokhin shot to fame after creating one of the first popular media viruses in the Russian media. It was one of his semi-improvised acts of performance art, broadcast live on Russian television in May 1991. As a guest on the popular talk show ''Fifth Wheel'', Kuryokhin provided "proof" that Lenin was a mushroom.

During the 1990s, Kuryokhin was a board member of the St. Petersburg City Council for Culture and Tourism. In 1995 Kuryokhin joined the National Bolshevik Party.

Death

He died of a rare heart condition, cardiac sarcoma, aged 42 in 1996, and was laid to rest in the Komarovo Cemetery, near the tomb of Anna Akhmatova.

Legacy

The Saint-Petersburg Annual International Music Festival SKIF ( Sergey Kuriokhin International Festival) is named after him. Kuryokhin festivals annually take place in Berlin, Amsterdam, and New York.

In 2004, the Sergey Kuryokhin Foundation and the Kuryokhin Center were founded. The foundation collects information about Kuryokhin and the Center organises events in the spirit of the artist. Both are located in the same building, an old cinema in Saint Petersburg. In 2009, the Sergey Kuryokhin Foundation and the Kuryokhin Center established the Sergey Kuryokhin Contemporary Art Award.

Discography

*'' The Ways of Freedom'' (Leo Records, 1981)
*'' Tragedy in Rock'' (1988)
*'' Mr. Designer'' (1989)
*''Popular Science'' (1989) with Henry Kaiser
*'' Album for Children'' (1991)
*'' Opera for the Rich'' (1991)
*'' Some combinations of fingers and passion'' (1991)
*'' Sparrow Oratorium/Four Seasons'' (1994)
*''Friends Afar (Sound Wave Records, 1996) with Kenny Millions
*''Dear John Cage (Long Arm Records, 1996) with Kenny Millions
*''2 For Tea'' (Long Arms Records, 1998) with David Moss

Other works

*Music for the stage production of the Chekhov's ''Chaika'' (aka ''The Seagull'') (1994)
*Music for the Russian TV series ''Anna Karenina'' (2007)
Also wrote Title Music for entire BBC TV series Comrades 1985 one episode of which featured him and other Leningrad Musicians and his Orchestra Popular mechanics
*''Mister Designer'' (1988)
*''Buster's Bedroom'' (1990)
*Leading role as Pavel Gorelikov in '' Dude - Water Winner'' (1991)

See also

*'' Without Kuryokhin'', an album by Kenny Millions and Otomo Yoshihide dedicated to the memory of Sergey.

References

Further reading

*
*

External links

*
BiographyFull discography at Russian Association of Independent GenresOfficial website of the Kuryokhin Centre for Modern Art
*
"Kuryokhin"
documentary film (director Vladimir Nepevny)
Excerpt on Sergey Kuryokhin's Popular Mechanics
from BBC documentary Comrades: All that Jazz
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuryokhin, Sergey
1954 births
1996 deaths
People from Murmansk
Soviet musicians
Russian musicians
National Bolshevik Party politicians
Deaths from cancer in Russia
Deaths from heart cancer
Russian record producers
Leo Records artists
Counterculture of the 1990s