Nautilus Pompilius (russian: Наутилус Помпилиус), sometimes nicknamed Nau (russian: Нау), was an influential

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, and later

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

rock band A rock band or pop band is a small musical ensemble that performs rock music, pop music, or a related genre. A four-piece band is the most common configuration in rock and pop music. In the early years, the configuration was typically two gui ...

Nautilus Pompilius
// Encyclopaedia of Contemporary Russian culture, 2013 founded in Sverdlovsk in 1982 by

Vyacheslav Butusov Vyacheslav Gennadievich Butusov (russian: link=no, Вячеслав Геннадьевич Бутусов; born 15 October 1961) is a Russian singer and songwriter. He was the lead singer of Nautilus Pompilius and U-Piter. Since 2019, he has been ...

and

Dmitry Umetsky Dmitry Konstantinovich Umetsky (Russian: Дми́трий Константи́нович Уме́цкий, born on 31 August 1961 in Sverdlovsk) is a Soviet and Russian rock musician and songwriter. Together with Vyacheslav Butusov, he founded ...

. Butusov disbanded the group in 1997, after multiple successful albums and several different line-ups of the band.

Name

The band was originally named "Ali-Baba and the Forty Thieves" (russian: "Али-Баба и сорок разбойников"). In 1983, at the suggestion of the band's sound director, Andrei Makarov, the band's name was changed to ''Nautilus''. In 1985, under the initiative of Ilya Kormiltsev, the name was lengthened to Nautilus Pompilius to avoid confusion with other Russian rock bands that were also named Nautilus at the time, such as the Moscow group led by

Evgeny Margulis Evgeny Shulimovich Margulis (russian: Евге́ний Шу́лимович Маргу́лис; born 25 December 1955) is a Russian rock and blues musician. He was a member of the bands Mashina Vremeni (1975-1979, 1990-2012) and Voskreseniye ( ...

. The band later elaborated on the name, saying "The band is named after the nudibranch mollusc, which is naturally beautiful and charming." Nautilus pompilius is the scientific name of a species of

cephalopod A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan class Cephalopoda ( Greek plural , ; "head-feet") such as a squid, octopus, cuttlefish, or nautilus. These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral body symmetry, a prominent head ...

(mistakenly called a nudibranch by the band) commonly known as the

Chambered Nautilus The chambered nautilus (''Nautilus pompilius''), also called the pearly nautilus, is the best-known species of nautilus. The shell, when cut away, reveals a lining of lustrous nacre and displays a nearly perfect equiangular spiral, although it ...

History

Founding

Vyacheslav Butusov and Dmitry Umetsky took the first steps towards forming Nautilus in the late 70's. At first, the band performed at small events, covering songs by foreign performers and famous native performers like

Mashina Vremeni Mashina Vremeni () is a Russian rock band founded in 1969. Mashina Vremeni was a pioneer of Soviet rock music and remains one of the oldest still-active rock bands in Russia. The band's music incorporates elements of classic rock, blues, and ba ...

and

Voskreseniye Voskreseniye (russian: Воскресение) is a Russian rock band. History The band was formed in 1979, when drummer Sergey Kavagoe decided to leave Mashina Vremeni and form his own group. Kavagoe was joined by Mashina Vremeni's bassist, E ...

. The band was formed by Butusov and Umetsky while the two were students in the Sverdlovsk Institute of Architecture (now called Urals Academy of Architecture). In 1982, the group made its first attempts to record its own songs. The band's first album, ''Pereyezd'' (Russian: Переезд), was released in 1983. It included some songs which had been recorded in 1982, as well as new material. The album was strongly influenced by

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ...

Later

The band was active in various incarnations from 1983 to 1997. Nautilus was an influential band in the

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-r ...

, new wave wing of Russian rock music and also a landmark of the "Ural rock" style with their philosophical lyrics. Some of their early hits are popularly associated with the

Perestroika ''Perestroika'' (; russian: links=no, перестройка, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg) was a political movement for reform within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s widely associated wit ...

period. The band's music was prominently featured in the 1997 movie ''

Brother A brother is a man or boy who shares one or more parents with another; a male sibling. The female counterpart is a sister. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to non-famili ...

'' (Russian: Брат). A version of their popular song, "Bound by One Chain" ("Скованные одной цепью") appeared in the 2008 film

Stilyagi Stilyagi ( rus, стиляги, p=sʲtʲɪˈlʲæɡʲɪ, "stylish, style hunters") were members of a youth counterculture from the late 1940s until the early 1960s in the Soviet Union. A stilyaga ( rus, стиляга, p=sʲtʲɪˈlʲaɡə) w ...

. The band hired English guitarist Bill Nelson to produce their 1997 album ''Yablokitay'' (russian: Яблокитай), on which Nelson also plays the guitar. Since the group disbanded, Vyacheslav Butusov has launched a successful solo career. Even though Butusov composed most of the band's songs and wrote some of their lyrics, poet

Ilya Kormiltsev Ilya Valeryevich Kormiltsev (russian: Илья́ Вале́рьевич Корми́льцев, b. September 26, 1959, Sverdlovsk, USSR - d. February 4, 2007, London, UK) was a Russian poet, translator, and publisher. Kormiltsev is most famous f ...

was a key contributor as a songwriter and producer.

Members

Discography

References

External links

Nautilus Pompilius' history
at Allmusic.com
Nautilus Pompilius
at discogs.com
Discography with Lyrics and English translationsAbout the bandNautilus Pompilius On-Line - Official web site

Zvuki.ru - Nautilus pompilius

Official Website of Butusov & U-Piter
Vyacheslav Butusov's current group (Nautilus Pompilius' front man) {{DEFAULTSORT:Nautilus Pompilius (Band) Russian rock music groups Soviet rock music groups Russian gothic rock groups Russian new wave musical groups Musical groups from Yekaterinburg