"Araks" - a group of stars

The "Araks" band is a vocal-instrumental collective that achieved the greatest popularity in the second half of the 70s. The team closely collaborated with popular (at that time) composers (Alexander Zatsepin, Alexei Rybnikov, Gennady Gladkov, Yuri Antonov) and pop performers (Tatiana Antsiferova, Alla Pugacheva, Larisa Dolina).

How it was

In the late 60's, as mushrooms after the rain, in the Soviet Union began to organize amateur groups, calling themselves "Beatles." The very word "rock" was not used in those days.

The music of these ensembles favorably differed from traditional VIA, performing songs of Soviet authors, members of the Union of Composers of the USSR. And since the musicians tried to write music themselves, their work was not officially recognized, and, accordingly, they could not even dream of reaching big scenes (not to mention any official recording of their work). The lot of speeches of bit groups were basements and basements, at best, camp sites for holiday homes in seaside resorts. From time to time it was possible to agree with the leadership of a supernumerary school or college about the provision of an assembly hall. In this case, most of the time the performance ended, barely started. Such a concert was stopped by a valiant police uniform.

The most popular at that time bit-commands were: "Glare", "Best years", "Atlantes", "Ruby attack", "Skomorokhi", "Second breath", "Vysokosnoe summer", "Falcon", "Tin soldiers" . All of them disappeared, leaving almost no trace behind them. If their songs were written down in an artisan way to antediluvian primitive reel tape recorders, then the films themselves were demagnetized long ago, crumbled, torn, and over time simply fell into disrepair.

Survived only those teams who were able to acquire a professional status, having joined the structure of any state structure, for example theater or philharmonic society. Such ensembles turned out to be few, and to this day almost two survived: "Time Machine" and "Araks". Since the late 70's they were called rock bands.

The Araks band was created in 1968 by three amateur musicians: Eduard Kasabov (bass, vocals), Alexei Panteleyev (guitar, vocals) and Garik Kasabov (drums). Supervised by the ensemble Vadim Marshev. The band performed both songs of their own compositions and cover versions of popular (at that time) foreign rock bands: Deep Purple, The Beatles, and Led Zeppelling. By the way, Edik Kasabov, a student of the Moscow Institute of Foreign Languages, sang not badly in English. On behalf of his mother (Araksy), according to some music experts, a group was named. Although most argue that the name of the collective is the same river in Transcaucasia.

The period of formation and glory of the collective

In 1971, a new vocalist, Yuri Shakhnazarov, appeared in the band, before that he acted in Skorokorokh by A. Gradsky. The next year Alexander Buinov and Boris Bagrychev join the team. In the composition: Buinov (keys), Shakhnazarov (guitar, vocals), Kasabov (bass) and Bagrychev (drums), the group actively performs in the Moscow region.

Especially it has success in the city of Lyubertsy. During one of the numerous performances, the team was noticed by the theatrical director Mark Zakharov, who staged musical performances and was looking for an ensemble for musical accompaniment of the productions. Thus, since 1973 the rock band "Araks" became a member of the troupe of the Lenin Komsomol Theater.

The group took part in staging performances "Til" and "Autograd XXI" (composer G. Gladkov). But the greatest popularity was brought to the collective by A. Rybnikov's rock opera "The Star and Death of Joaquin Murieta". Thousands of music lovers had in their collection a magnetic tape with the recording of this work.

In the first half of the 1970s, large personnel changes were taking place in the ensemble. Some musicians came (Sergei Rudnitsky, Alexander Danilovich, Anatoly Abramov, Alexander Polonsky, Alexander Lerman, Sergei Belikov, Alexander Sado), others (Alexander Buinov, Boris Bagrychev, Eduard Kasabov) left.

In 1974, the band remembered their participation in the film G. Danelia "Afonya", performing a song of his own composition (author Y. Shakhnazarov) "Memoirs". At the end of the 1970s, the composition of the "Araks" group changed cardinally. In the team there are such professional musicians as Vadim Golutvin, Timur Mardaleishvili, Anatoly Aleshin, Eugene Margulis. The group leaves the theater of Mark Zakharov and makes an attempt of independent concert activity. From 1980 to 1982, the ensemble gave 876 performances. At this time the group worked with popular composers and singers. Fans of music with experience probably remember the legendary alliance, which was formed by the composer and singer Yuri Antonov and the Araks band. The whole country sang their famous hits: "Anastasia", "Do not forget", "The Golden Ladder", "The Road to the Sea", etc. At this time "Araks" - a group that helped to light such singers as T. Antsiferova, L The Valley, A. Pugacheva.

In 1982 the Ministry of Culture of the USSR issued an order banning concert activity of a whole list of ensembles that had not listened to the artistic council. By the way, such well-known collectives as "Alpha", "Cruise", "Carnival", "Firebird" got to this list. Among them was Araks. The group disintegrated and ceased to exist until 1987.

Revival

In 1987, the ensemble is reviving and recording an album of old songs from the early 80's. At the same time instrumental recording is carried out in Russia, and voice recording is in the USA. Anatoly Aleshin is recording the vocal parts there. So there was a record called "Old, but gold".

In April 2002, the first performance of the revived ensemble "Araks" was held. The group took part in the gala concert in the shopping center "Three Whales". Then there were speeches on television in the recording of the program "Disco-80", concert performances in various cities, participation in TV programs on the Russian channels "REN-TV", "NTV +", "Stolitsa".

Nowadays

Now there is a situation where there are two ensembles with the name "Araks": a group of classical composition (Golutvin, Mardaleishvili, Timofeev, Alyoshin, Vasyukov) and Lenkomovsky (Rudnitsky, Abramov, Parfenyuk, Sado, Zaripov). "Lenkom" - these are the musicians who did not dare to go to "free bread" in 1980. Now both teams are actively touring around the country, and an inexperienced viewer can not figure out who is who.