Vasily Gerardovich Shumov (russian: Василий Герардович Шумов; born 23 March 1960) is a Russian-American artist, musician, multimedia and experimental artist, short film director and record producer. He is probably best known for his music band

Center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...

, which was formed in

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

(late 1970s - late 1980s) and is based in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, United States since 1990. Shumov created music in such genres as new wave,

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

avantgarde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or 'vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical De ...

. His art of singing is often

sprechgesang (, "spoken singing") and (, "spoken voice") are expressionist vocal techniques between singing and speaking. Though sometimes used interchangeably, ''Sprechgesang'' is directly related to the operatic ''recitative'' manner of singing (in which ...

, especially on later albums.

Personal life

Vasily Shumov is the son of Maria Evlakhova and Gerard Shumov. With his first wife he had a son Anton. With his second wife, Judith he had two children, Angelica and Nikolai.

Career

Vasily Shumov's career as a musician, producer and songwriter took start in late 1970s, in the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. He organised the rock'n'roll band to play underground music at the local dancing venue of the Moscow suburbs of Korolyov. In early 80s the band, called

, became extremely popular among youth audience across the former Soviet empire, together with other groups of the "rock and roll revival" scene. Until 1990, Vasily Shumov was occupied both with his career as a frontman of Center and solo (albums, soundtracks, TV and radio, direction and music production for the fellow musicians, like Zvuki Mu). In 1990 Shumov moved to

(

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, United States), where he lived with his family. He was frequenting Russia, although "the Moscow Times" newspaper featured his "comeback concert" as the only one for the recent eight years (2006) In LA Vasily shot movies and created numerous multimedia art projects, he experimented with innovative ways of music releasing and label production by means of the internet technologies, he also lectured on multimedia art, design and computer.В.Шумов: «В кризисе всё, в том числе и электронная музыка»
- interview for Tektonika.ru, 2005, in Russian During the first years of the century, Shumov is coordinating the "c-e-n-t-e-r" project, resulted with a series of episodes, where experimental music and videos of many different performers have been combined. The so-called centroborators were contributing for this project through the http and ftp protocols. A movie "Kelton's Dark Corner" (starring

Paul Marco Paul Marco (June 10, 1927 – May 14, 2006) was an American actor who often appeared in movies made by Ed Wood, including the "Kelton Trilogy" of '' Bride of the Monster'', ''Night of the Ghouls'' and ''Plan 9 from Outer Space'', in which he play ...

, directed by Vasily Shumov) was released in January 2006. But Paul Marco, who is probably best known for the

Ed Wood Edward Davis Wood Jr. (October 10, 1924 – December 10, 1978) was an American filmmaker, actor, and pulp novel author. In the 1950s, Wood directed several low-budget science fiction, crime and horror films that later became cult cla ...

's 1950s films, died during the production, so the planned "Dark Corner" series were never finished In 2012, Shumov has an idea to create the "Russian White Album", a collection of tracks donated by their copywriters for free. The project was a brainchild of Shumo
(rus)
The protest anti-Putin set of tracks was described by Shumov himself as a columnist for rbth.com news websit

Discography

Solo albums

* 1986 My District (Мой район) * 1990 Время три (Time Three) * 1992 Шумовидение. Песни Живых и Мертвых (Noisevision. Songs of living and dead) * 1992 Тектоника(к) (Tectonics) * 1994 Голливудский Василек (Vasilyok of Hollywood) * 1997 Короли поэзии в трансе (Kings of Poetry in Trance) * 1998 Концерт в программе «Живая коллекция» (c группой «НТО Рецепт») (Concert in «Live Collection» broadcast) * 2000 Музыка к 4 фильмам (music for 4 films) * 2000 Играй сам себя (Play Itself) * 2001 Анагра (Аналоговое Гражданство) (Anagra. Analogous Citizenship)

References

External links

Centromania.com
— official web site of the band Center
"c-e-n-t-e-r"
project

// http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vs_moscowtimes.jpg // фото "The Moscow Times" (2006) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shumov, Vasily Russian male musicians American electronic musicians Russian electronic musicians Russian record producers Living people 1960 births