Historically significant departure of Kipelov from the legendary group. The history of the Aria group The official date of the creation of the Soviet rock group Aria

History of creation and composition

Speaking of prehistory, we should remember 1982, when MPEI students Vitaly Dubinin and Vladimir Kholstinin created the amateur rock band Magic Twilight. Dubinin soloed and played the bass guitar, then Artur Berkut came to the role of vocalist. However, the team quickly fell apart.



In 1985, Kholstinin joined the VIA "Singing Hearts", led by Viktor Vekshtein. He was followed by Alik Granovsky and Valery Kipelov as an accompaniment. The guys played VIA, but they dreamed of completely different music.

idea to create your own male team playing in style hard rock, embodied Kholstinin and Granovsky. The new group was named "Aria". The idea of ​​the name belonged to Vladimir, who appreciated its conciseness and same spelling in Cyrillic and Latin.

The founding date of the team is October 31, 1985 - the day the first studio album"Megalomania". By this time, the composition had finally become this: soloist - Valery Kipelov, drummer - Igor Molchanov, sound engineer - Alexander Lvov, backing vocalist - Kirill Pokrovsky, guitarists - Vladimir Kholstinin and Andrey Bolshakov.


In 1986, the group held their first concert, took part in several festivals, including Rock Panorama-86, thanks to last speech The guys first got on TV. However, the activities of the team could not be called complete. The guys played as the opening act at sanctioned concerts. Genre "non-format" was not allowed for ideological reasons.

The director of the group, Vekshtein, showed miracles of ingenuity in order to approve the musical concert program"Arias". The material was "veiled" with real arias from famous operas, "justifying" the name, the authors of the compositions of respected songwriters were prescribed.


And here is the victory! On September 12, 1986, the commission approved solo program group and its name. Then no one thought that already in December of the same year the group would be left without the main line-up.


The split has been brewing for a long time. Kholstinin and Bolshakov did not agree on creative views. The musicians were dissatisfied with small earnings and eternal censorship, making claims to Vekshtein. As a result, Bolshakov, Granovsky, Molchanov and Pokrovsky leave and form the "Master". Alexander Lvov also leaves the team at the invitation of the Gorky Park group.


Kipelov and Kholstinin, who remained in Aria, were joined by Vitaly Dubinin, who played in Magic Twilight, as well as guitarist Sergei Mavrin and drummer Maxim Udalov. This composition will later be called "classic", and the third album recorded by the musicians - "Hero of Asphalt" (1987) - will also become a classic in the group's discography. The vinyl record has a circulation of 1 million copies. It's time for Aria to rise.


In 1987-1988, Aria made a tour of the USSR and traveled to Germany for the first time. In October 1988, the musicians, dissatisfied with Vekshtein's management, went to the new director, Yuri Fishkin. And in 1989, under his auspices, new album"Aryans" "Playing with fire".


The 90s were a difficult period for the band. Concerts, tours - everything that yesterday still filled the life of musicians, suddenly began to disappear. Financial difficulties led to the fact that the group again split. In 1994, the "Aryans" returned after a tour of Germany without actually earning anything.


Having quarreled with the organizers, the musicians began to look for ways to earn extra money. At the suggestion of friends from the Master group, Valery Kipelov began performing in clubs to earn money. Other "Aryans" did not like it. They announced a replacement vocalist. Offended, Kipelov broke off relations with his former colleagues. Sergey Mavrin leaves after him. Sergei Terentiev takes his place.


However, Kipelov leaves not for long. Aria did not work out with new vocalists, and the record company did not want to work with the Aryans without Kipelov. Under the threat of sanctions, Dubinin and Kholstinin agree with him to return. Together they recorded the sixth album Night is Shorter than Day (1995).

Since 1998, namely with the release of the album "Generator of Evil", the media glory of the group "Aria" begins. The clip "The Hermit" got into the rotation of the Muz-TV channel and for a long time took the top lines of the hit parade. In 1999, "Aria" fills the radio airwaves, this is facilitated by the success of the song " Careless Angel". Such a wide rotation allowed the musicians to gain fans of a new generation.

The year 2001 was marked by the release of the Chimera album, many songs from which instantly became hits. At this time, one of the leaders, Valery Kipelov, who had previously been fond of solo projects, finally decided to break away from the team.

Thus, in the summer of 2002, after the farewell tour of the group and final concert in Luzhniki, Kipelov and Terentiev and Manyakin, who supported him, left the Aria, announcing the creation of a new Kipelov group. The very first album of the musicians was marked by the ballad “I am free” (it was written back in 1997 and was included in the joint album of Mavrin and Kipelov “ Time of Troubles”), which brought the group to the top of the rock charts.

Meanwhile, "Aria" also reaped the benefits of success. The group's album Baptism by Fire, recorded with the new vocalist Artur Berkut, became the leader of the rock charts. Together with Berkut, Aria spent almost 10 fruitful years, during which wonderful projects were implemented: participation in the metal opera Elvish Manuscript (2004), the Dance of Hell concert tour (2006-2007), a concert tour dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the album "Hero of asphalt" (2007-2008), the festival "Aria Fest", which later became traditional, and many others.

In 2011, the group announced the departure of Artur Berkut. The intrigue around the name of the new vocalist was fueled by rumors about the return of Kipelov. But he immediately refused: his team was already famous and was preparing to celebrate a decade.

Mikhail Zhitnyakov from the group "Grand Courage" became the new vocalist of "Aria". With a new soloist, Aria released the album Live in Studio in 2012, where the group's old hits were covered. After that, the team began active concert and touring activities in Russia and abroad.

In 2016, in the biography of the group - an outstanding event: "Aria" performed for the first time in the Kremlin at a concert dedicated to Cosmonautics Day. The "Aryans" performed the hit "Point of no return", the music for which was written by Mikhail Zhitnyakov.

Music

The band began playing in the style of classic heavy metal. And in the early stages, such giants as Rainbow, Scorpions, deep purple, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. On their first foreign trip to Germany, the group was even called the Russian Iron Maiden.

Frequently changing composition, new trends, increasing competition - all this influenced the transformation musical genre"Arias". Soon her calling card become traditional Russian overflows.

The end of the 90s and the beginning of the “zero” is the time of the first lyrical rock ballads (“Paradise Lost”, “Shard of Ice”), thanks to which the group increased the circle of listeners at times.

In 2001, the team begins experiments with the classics. At the rock festival "Invasion-2001" "Aria" for the first time performed together with symphony orchestra"Globalis" by Konstantin Krimts, and in 2002 held a joint tour, which they called "Classical Aria". In 2015, as part of the celebration of the group's 30th anniversary, the musicians revived the Classical Aria project, working with the Swedish conductor Ulf Wadenbrandt. And in 2017, the rockers went on a tour of the same name.

"Aria" now

Now "Aria" is working on a new album, the release of which is scheduled for autumn 2018. The group still includes permanent Vladimir Kholstinin and Vitaly Dubinin (guitar and bass guitar), as well as guitarist Sergei Popov, drummer Maxim Udalov and vocalist Mikhail Zhitnyakov.

Fans follow the work of the "Aryans" on the official website, as well as on Instagram, where fresh photographic material is always available.

Discography (studio albums)

1985 - Megalomania

1986 - "Who are you with?"

1988 - "Hero of Asphalt"

1990 - "Playing with Fire"

1991 - "Blood for Blood"

1995 - Night is shorter than day

1998 - "Evil Generator"

2001 - "Chimera"

2003 - Baptism by Fire

2006 - "Armageddon"

2011 - "Phoenix"

2014 - "Through all the times"

Clips

1987 - Behind America

1988 - Rose Street

1989 - "Gimme the heat!"

1991 - "Everything that was"

1995 - "Take my heart"

1998 - "The Hermit"

2000 - "Careless Angel"

2000 - Paradise Lost

2001 - "Calm"

2002 - "Shard of Ice"

2003 - "Colosseum"

2004 - Baptism by Fire

2005 - "There high"

2006 - "The Last Sunset"

2015 - "Point of no return"

dum spiro spero
MILA 2008-02-23 14:03:46

I really hope that ARIA will live in this composition for a very long time. long life. They are all SUPER! The inexhaustible energy of Arthur Berkut and the charming smile of Max Udalov inspire hope for the best. good luck and great creative success To you, "ARYANS"

334 rebounds, 8 of them this month

Biography

"Aria" Russian group playing in the style of metal. The music of "Aria" is designed in the style of the groups " new wave British heavy metal."

Aria is one of the oldest and most successful metal bands in Russia. Winner of the 2007 Fuzz Award for Best Live Band. Many other notable bands("Master", "Kipelov", "Mavrik", "Artery"), which together form a galaxy called "the family of" Arias "".

background

The future musicians of "Aria" Vitaly Dubinin and Vladimir Holstinin met while studying at MPEI, where they created an amateur rock band "Magic Twilight". Dubinin at first was a singing bassist, then Artur Berkut was invited to the role of vocalist. In 1982, Dubinin left the group to complete his education. Soon, Berkut received an invitation to take the place of the vocalist in the popular art-rock group Avtograf, and Magic Twilight disbanded.

Kholstinin, along with bass guitarist Alik Granovsky, became members of the Alfa group, which performed hard rock. The group only lasted a few years. During the period of struggle with amateur groups in 1982-84, musicians were forced to look for work in official VIA. Kholstinin, Dubinin and Granovsky joined the VIA "Singing Hearts" in 1985. Valery Kipelov also moved there from the collapsed VIA "Leisya Song". Dubinin left Singing Hearts a few months later to study as a vocalist at the Academy. Gnesins.

Early history

While playing in Singing Hearts, Kholstinin and Granovsky created a side project in parallel: a group that was supposed to perform heavy metal. Viktor Vekshtein, the director of Singing Hearts, became the manager and artistic director of the new group, who provided the musicians with his studio. The name of the group was invented by Kholstinin, choosing it at random as it can be conveniently translated into Latin. Also, according to one of the versions, an important fact when choosing a name was the ease of its chanting. Thanks to this, the musicians and fans of the group subsequently began to be called "Aryans".

Vekshtein, Kholstinin and Granovsky began to select the composition of the group. During this period, guitarist Sergei Potemkin (ex-Alpha), vocalist Nikolai Noskov (then in Gorky Park), keyboardist Alexander Myasnikov (ex-Accent) auditioned for it. In February 1985, Valery Kipelov (ex-“Leysya, song”) was approved as the permanent vocalist of Aria. Alexander Lvov, the sound engineer of Singing Hearts, became the drummer, Kirill Pokrovsky became the keyboardist and backing vocalist.

The musicians themselves call the band's birthday October 31, 1985, when work on the album "Megalomania" was completed. The album was recorded with only one guitarist, Kholstinin. The second guitarist, Andrei Bolshakov (ex-Zigzag, ex-Cocktail) was invited for concert activities. In addition, Igor Molchanov (ex-Alfa) replaced Lvov on drums, who remained the sound engineer of the group.

The first concert of "Aria" was held in the Palace of Culture MAI on February 5, 1986, as the opening act for themselves as "Singing Hearts". In the same year, the group, already solo, took part in the Rock Panorama-86 and Lituanika-86 festivals. At the festivals, the group was met with approval and immediately won several awards and some underground popularity.

Aria's second album, Who Are You With?, was recorded in next year. It differed from the first in a weighted sound. Most of the compositions were written by Bolshakov, a fan of Judas Priest, influenced by the style of this group. The author of the texts for most of the songs (except for “Without You” Margarita Pushkina and the instrumental “Memory o”) was Alexander Yelin, which is connected with the acute social and anti-war theme of the album (“Will and Reason”, “Get Up, Overcome Fear”, “Who are you with?”, “Games are not for us”). Former drummer of the group Alexander Lvov again acted as a sound engineer.

After a series of sold-out concerts at the Aria, a conflict occurs between the new guitarist Andrei Bolshakov and manager Viktor Vekshtein. Most of the group, except Kholstinin and Kipelov, takes the side of Andrei and breaks off relations with Vekshtein, but Viktor retains the rights to the name. Granovsky, Bolshakov, Molchanov and Pokrovsky created the Master group and in 1987 released their self-titled debut album, including several songs written by them for Aria.

Path to glory

Valery Kipelov and Vladimir Kholstinin remain in Aria. The band invites bassist Vitaly Dubinin, who played with Kholstinin and Berkut in "Magic Twilight" and "Alpha" back in the early 80s, as well as guitarist Sergei Mavrin and drummer Maxim Udalov (both ex-"Black Coffee" and "Metallakkord ").

In 1987 new composition"Arias" is recording an album, which was originally supposed to be called "In the service of the forces of evil." It was the first album released by the state monopoly company Melodiya, so significant changes were made to it: the album was renamed Hero of Asphalt and the cover was changed accordingly, some texts were censored. The final version of the album did not include, due to the volume of the disc, the composition “Give me a hand” later it was published on the collections of Aria “Calm” and “Legends of Russian Rock”. The circulation of the third album on vinyl amounted to more than 1,000,000 copies and sold out in a few months. The disc is considered one of the best in the history of the group, it is often included among the "classic" for "Aria". The first video clip in the history of the group was filmed for the song "Street of Roses".

During 1987-88, Aria made a tour throughout the USSR and the first trip abroad, to Germany, where it performed at the Days of the Wall festival in Berlin.

At this time, the relationship of the band members with the manager again and completely deteriorated. The musicians insisted on recording a new album, while Vekshtein demanded more and more new concert tours. In October 1988, due to the conflict, Udalov left Aria and in November Alexander Manyakin was invited instead. At that time, Udalov remained in the group as a sound engineer. In 1989, the group released another album called "Playing with Fire" with Yuri Fishkin as a manager. Victor Vekshtein retained the formal rights to the name, which is why the group performed as "Aria-89" all year. However, Victor did not make claims to the group for the name, and a year later he died.

In the early 90s, due to the economic crisis, the group experienced a decline in their activities, sharply reducing the number of concerts. Musicians are forced to look for additional sources of income. Kipelov during this period worked part-time as a watchman, Kholstinin as a private driver. In 1990, Dubinin and Mavrin signed a contract with the Lion Heart group and left for Munich for a while (as part of the group they were replaced by session Gorbatikov and Bulkin), but returned to the group in August. After celebrating their fifth anniversary and several live shows, the band began working on their fifth album, Blood for Blood, which was released in 1991.

In 1994, he founded his own studio, ARIA Records, and signed a five-year contract with Moroz Records. On this label in the summer of 1994, the first five albums of the group were re-released, including the early, unreleased, Megalomania and Who Are You With?. The albums were designed by the artist Vasily Gavrilov. In September, a two-week tour of Germany was made in seven cities, including a performance at a Berlin hard rock cafe.

By the end of the 1994 tour in Germany, the group had disagreements with the organizers, which affected the relationship within the team. After the end of the tour, Valery Kipelov actually left the group: he stopped appearing at rehearsals and recording the album in the studio, and held several concerts with the Master group. In December, Alexei Bulgakov (vocalist and leader of the Legion) auditioned as a replacement for Kipelov. In January 1995, Sergei Mavrin left the band, stating that he refused to continue performing without Kipelov. In place of Mavrin, first as a session musician, Sergey Terentyev was invited, later he became a permanent member of the group. Kipelov and Mavrin performed together for several months with the Back to the Future program with cover versions of songs by foreign rock bands (Slade, Black Sabbath, etc.), as well as songs by Aria. There is a bootleg of one of these concerts. But the project was not successful, and at the end of 1995 Kipelov returned to Aria under the threat of sanctions for breaking the contract from Moroz records. He recorded vocals for the new album "Night is shorter than day", released in September 1995. "Aria" held a series of concerts in the Moscow region with Sergei Zadora as a new manager, recording a live album "Made in Russia", which became the leader of the charts.

In 1997, Kipelov and Mavrin again joined forces, recording the album "Time of Troubles" in a duet, in which Alik Granovsky also took part. Dubinin and Kholstinin recorded their own, called "AvAriya", where Vitaly also took part as a vocalist. In 1998, "Aria" released "Generator of Evil", where for the first time Terentyev's songs were present and for the first time the producers were not indicated (Dubinin and Kholstinin were the producers of previous albums).

Until the end of the 1990s, Aria's songs were rarely broadcast on central radio stations. The first to decide to include Aria in the regular rotation of Our Radio, headed by Mikhail Kozyrev. Already in 2000, the single "Paradise Lost" brought the group success in the Nashe Radio chart, and the video for this song first brought the group to the channel " MTV Russia". The general format of both Our Radio and MTV Russia was focused on wide circle listeners and was generally very far from the rock music of the 80s, in the style of which the group continued to play. Nevertheless, the rotation on these media resources allowed the group to regain popularity and gain fans among a new generation of listeners.

At this time, Valery Kipelov, who gave interviews on behalf of the entire team, became the "face" of the group. In 2001, "Aria" released the album "Chimera", on the cover of which for the first time appears the group's mascot Zhorik, invented by the artist Leo Hao. The songs "Calm", "The Sky Will Find You" and "Shard of Ice", which immediately fell into the rotation of radio stations, repeated the success of "Paradise Lost". In support of the album, Aria held a tour with Udo Dirkschneider as a guest. The group became the headliner of the Invasion-2001 festival, where they performed together with the Globalis Symphony Orchestra by Konstantin Krimts, a conductor known for his original appearance and expressive behavior, suitable for a rock show.

In 2001, the group made a tour with "Globalis", which was called "Classic Aria". During the tour, the tension in the relationship between the musicians grew. According to Valery Kipelov, there was already an unhealthy atmosphere in the group during the recording of the Chimera album, where each author recorded and mixed his songs separately. He suggested to Dubinin and Kholstinin to temporarily suspend the activities of the group and take up solo work. They refused, as the material for the new album was almost ready. Then Kipelov refused to participate in the recording of the album. Sergey Terentiev, Alexander Manyakin and the group's manager Rina Li supported Kipelov, speaking out against the two leaders of the group and producers Yuri Sokolov and Sergey Shunyaev. Dubinin and Kholstinin, in turn, accused Kipelov of disrupting the recording of the album and releasing old albums in Germany, as well as the group's manager Rina Lee of inciting Terentyev and Manyakin to break with the group.

There was also the question of the rights to the name "Aria". Kipelov in an interview stated a kind of "gentleman's agreement" that no one would use it in further career. He also attributed to colleagues plans to perform under the name "Chimera", in honor of the latest album. Dubinin and Kholstinin categorically rejected such intentions, insisting that the rights to the name belong to them, and that this issue was resolved according to Dubinin, “we resolved some issues regarding the name with him, Valera was aware of everything.” “At the negotiations with Shunyaev, we offered Valera to become a co-owner of the title.” A group called "Chimera" was indeed founded in 2002 with the support of Alexander Yelin and the "Aryans", but none of them ever spoke for it. At the same time, the vocalist of Chimera, Andrei Khramov, held one concert with Dubinin, Kholstinin and Udalov, performing "Aryan" songs.

The last release of the old line-up was an album of rare tracks and covers "Calm". In August, the farewell tour of the group " Green Mile". After the final concert on August 31, 2002 in Luzhniki, which was called "Judgment Day" (which gave the name to the split), Kipelov, Terentyev and Manyakin left the "Aria". The next day, having included Sergey Mavrin and Alexey Kharkov in their composition, they announced the creation of a new group called Kipelov. Kholstinin made an attempt in September to return Kipelov to the group, Valery came to the studio for negotiations, but refused to reunite without Terentyev and Manyakin, who were not invited.

Despite rumors about the demise of the group, in November 2002, the new composition of Aria was announced. Former musician"Masters" Sergey Popov became the second guitarist, Artur Berkut (ex-"Autograph", ex-"Mavrik") was invited as a new vocalist, drummer Maxim Udalov also returned to "Aria". 5th of December new aria released the single "Coliseum", which preceded the album "Baptism of Fire". The release was successful, the songs "Coliseum", "There, High" and "Baptism by Fire" reached the first places in the rock charts. A video was also shot for the song "Colosseum", which was broadcast on MTV Russia and reached the first place in the channel's charts. However, some of the old fans did not accept the change of vocalist, believing that Berkut's voice did not match the music of Aria.

In 2005-06, Aria celebrated its twentieth anniversary with a new concert tour, together with the Mavrik group. Former members groups were invited to participate in holiday concert in Luzhniki. "Master" and Sergei Mavrin responded to the invitation, but Kipelov refused because of busy schedule own tour. For this tour in 2007, Aria was awarded the Fuzz magazine award in the Best Live Band of the Year nomination. The "Jubilee" version of the song "Will and Reason", recorded with the participation of Konstantin Kinchev, the Samoilov brothers, Yuri Shevchuk, Vyacheslav Butusov, as well as Mavrin and the author of the song Bolshakov, reached the first lines in the "Chart Dozen".

At the same time, the musicians signed a long-term contract with the CD Maximum label, which, according to them, provided more favorable conditions than Moroz records, with which they have collaborated for the past ten years. Aria's next album, Armageddon, was released in September 2006. To create it, the group invited two new lyricists Nina Kokoreva and Igor Lobanov (Cash, vocalist of the alternative group "Slot"), and Berkut made his debut as a composer. The songs “Alien” and “The Light of Past Love” topped the “Chart Dozen”.

In 2007-08, Aria held a concert tour dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Hero of Asphalt album. The final concert of the tour in Moscow and St. Petersburg featured Kipelov and Mavrin as guests (this concert was released on DVD and CD in the same year).

03.10.08 the tour "Give the heat" started. During the tour, Aria performed songs that she had not performed for a long time, or had not performed at all, since the moment of writing. The tour ended very successfully with a concert in Moscow on 22.05.09.

Contribution to music

Aria became the first (and, according to some, the only) nationally famous and commercially successful metal band in the USSR and Russia. The popularity of "Aria" to a large extent contributed to the development of the corresponding direction of "heavy" music in Russia. Aria is one of the few Russian rock bands, known and touring outside the former USSR.

The main genre of "Aria" is traditional heavy metal in its "English" school: "gallop" guitar riffs, high-pitched vocals, long guitar solos. The band started playing by imitating such heavy metal classics as Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Judas Priest. Because of this, critics accused Aria of epigonism and unoriginality, as well as borrowing musical moves at these groups. The musicians themselves deny such accusations: Vladimir Kholstinin in an interview with Dylan Troy: “Most of our music doesn’t really know anything. We heard once “Iron Maiden”, and let's persuade us. The triplet rhythm was also played by “Deep Purple”, a lot of similar moments can also be found at Jethro Tull". At least once they wrote that I ripped off something from Jethro Tull. At least some variety... Original logic: what if "Aria" played hard rock and roll, it turns out that we are ripping off Chuck Berry? All over the world, the discussion on this topic is long over."

Since the late 1990s, the group's style has become more independent. At the same time, Aria developed a penchant for lyrical rock ballads, thanks to which, in many ways, the group managed to gain wide popularity. The ballads "Paradise Lost", "Calm", "Shard of Ice" were broadcast by radio stations, while more "hard" compositions for the most part remained "non-format".

With the change of line-up and the arrival of a new vocalist, “heavy” compositions again began to prevail in the repertoire of Aria, and some elements of power metal also appeared.

"Aria" has three published cover versions of songs by foreign performers. All covers were performed translated into Russian and have names taken from the text. These are Manowar Return of the Warlord ("The hour has struck"), Golden Earring Going to the Run ("Careless angel") and White Lion Cry for Freedom (Freedom). All three songs in the Russian translation by Pushkina are dedicated to bikers. "The Hour Has Struck" and "Careless Angel" were originally released on the first Tribute to Harley-Davidson disc, "Freedom" on the second, and all three were later re-released on the Calm album of rare tracks. The song "Careless Angel" for some time led the "Chart Dozen" and entered the permanent repertoire of the group.

In addition, at several concerts after 2003, Aria performed a cover version of the Iron Maiden song "The Trooper". However, this song did not appear on the recording.

In turn, the songs of the Aria group became the object of cover versions of other groups. In particular, by Rammstein in 2003, a rare single Schtiel was released, containing a cover version of the song "Calm", processed in an industrial style. The German heavy metal band Solemnity released a cover version of the song "Will and Reason" under the title "Will and Reason". The Russian group "Slot" recorded their version of the song "Street of Roses". In 2001, the album A Tribute to Aria was released with recordings of cover versions of Aria songs recorded by Russian metal bands. "Aria" is a favorite target of comic cover versions of the group "Boni NEM".

Aria is a Russian band that plays music in the style of British heavy metal. This is one of the most successful and oldest metal bands in Russia. In 2007, she was the winner of the Fuzz Award for Best Live Band. The participants of "Aria" created many well-known groups ("Mavrin", "Master", "Arteria", "Kipelov"), which make up the galaxy whose name is "Aria's family".

Most of the texts for the group were written by poets: Alexander Elin and Margarita Pushkina.

background :

The acquaintance of the future musicians of "Aria" Vladimir Kholstinin and Vitaly Dubinin took place during their studies at MPEI, where the amateur rock group "Magic Twilight" was created. Initially, Dubinin acted as a bassist, then Artur Berkut became the vocalist. In 1982, Dubinin left the group to complete his education. After a while, Berkut was invited to the place of the vocalist in the popular art-rock group Avtograf, and Magic Twilight broke up.

Bass guitarist Alik Granovsky and Kholstinin became members of the Alfa group, which performed hard rock. The group lasted only a few years. In 1982-1984, when there was a struggle with amateur groups, musicians were forced to look for work in official VIA. In 1985, Dubinin, Kholstinin and Granovsky joined the Singing Hearts ensemble. Valery Kipelov also moved there from the disintegrated ensemble "Leysya, song". A few months later, Dubinin left the Singing Hearts group to study at the Gnessin Academy as a vocalist.

Early history :

In parallel with participation in "Singing Hearts", Granovsky and Kholstinin created a side project, which involved the creation of a heavy metal band. Artistic director and Viktor Vekshtein, who was the director of Singing Hearts, became the manager of the new group. He lent his studio to musicians. The name of the group was invented by Kholstinin.

Subsequently, the musicians and fans of the group began to be called "Aryans". Kholstinin, Vekshtein and Granovsky took up the selection of the group. During this period, vocalist Nikolai Noskov, guitarist Sergei Potemkin, keyboardist Alexander Myasnikov tried out for the group. The permanent vocalist of "Aria" was approved in February 1985, he became Valery Kipelov. The place of the drummer was taken by Alexander Lvov, who was the sound engineer of the Singing Hearts, and Kirill Pokrovsky became the backing vocalist and keyboardist.

October 31, 1985 is considered the band's birthday, it was on this day that the band's first studio album called "Megalomania" was created. The material, which was released by samizdat on a magnetic cassette, was traditional heavy metal in the spirit of American and American fashionable at that time. English groups like Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. This album was recorded with only one guitarist Holstinin in the line-up. But for concert activities, they still invited the second guitarist Andrei Bolshakov. In addition, for drums, Lvov, who remained the sound engineer of the group, was replaced by Igor Molchanov.

On February 5, 1986, the first concert of Aria took place in the Palace of Culture of the MAI. They played as the opening act for Singing Hearts. In the same year, the group solo participated in the festivals "Lituanika-86" and "Rock Panorama-86". "Aria" was met at the festivals very favorably, and the group even won several awards and Underground popularity.

The following year, Aria recorded a second album called "Who are you with?". Unlike the first one, this album had a heavier sound. Most of the compositions were written by Bolshakov, who was a fan of Judas Priest, so the style of this group was present in his compositions. For most of the songs, the lyrics were written by Alexander Elin (with the exception of “Without You” and “Memory of ...” - Margarita Pushkina), which is why the album had an acute social and anti-war theme (“Get up, overcome fear”, “Will and Reason” , “Games are not for us”, “Who are you with?”). Alexander Lvov, who was the drummer in the group, again acted as a sound engineer.

After a series of sold-out concerts in the group, there was a conflict between the managers Viktor Vekshtein and the new guitarist Andrei Bolshakov. In addition to Kipelov and Kholstinin, all the other members of the group sided with Bolshakov and broke off relations with Vekshtein, but Viktor retained the rights to the name. Molchanov, Granovsky, Pokrovsky and Bolshakov created the Master group, and their first album of the same name, which contained several songs by Aria, was released in 1987.

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Biography, life story of the Aria group

The idea of ​​creating a group playing uncompromising heavy metal was born by Vladimir Kholstinin a long time ago, back in the days of his collaboration with Sergey Sarychev and the Alfa group.

In Alpha, Vladimir met Alik Granovsky. Having shared his ideas, Vladimir found a like-minded person in him, and soon the guys started working on their first album. By the beginning of 1985, most of the material was ready, the question of the recording studio and the vocalist remained open. At this time, Alik and Vladimir get acquainted with Viktor Vekshtein - having heard the material, he decides to become the manager of the future group and provides the guys with his studio to record the album. The vocalist was found quickly enough - it was Valery Kipelov.

The name of the group was invented by Vladimir Kholstinin - the word "ARIA", in addition to brevity and convenience of writing, both in Russian and in English, carried certain meaning: fans and musicians of the group immediately began to be called "Aryans".

Alexander Lvov (drums) and Kirill Pokrovsky (keyboards) took part in the recording of the first album. The professionally played album turned out to be so different from all the rock that was performed at that time in the USSR that the group was immediately noticed and appreciated by fans of serious, heavy music.

On the album, all parts were recorded by one guitarist, but the band needed a second one to perform at concerts. Andrey Bolshakov became them. Igor Molchanov (played with Vladimir and Alik in Alfa) replaced Alexander Lvov on drums. The first concert of the ARIA took place on February 5, 1986 at the Palace of Culture of the Moscow Aviation Institute. Most of those present agreed that the group was very promising, but there were enough ill-wishers. Pessimistic forecasts did not come true - soon ARIA becomes the laureate of "Rock-Panorama-86", and at the festival "Lituanika-86", held in Vilnius, receives a prize for professionalism. And although the press stubbornly bypasses the group in silence, ARIA continues to rapidly go up, collecting full houses.

In November 1986, the group released their second album "Who are you with?". By the time of its release, a real split had ripened in the group, the causes of which were both dissatisfaction with the administrative policy of Viktor Vekshtein and disagreements between the musicians regarding the further style of the group. After a tour in January 1987, Alik Granovsky, Andrei Bolshakov, Igor Molchanov and Kirill Pokrovsky leave ARIA, expressing a desire to play other music.

CONTINUED BELOW


Soon, Vitaly Dubinin (Vladimir's friend from the institute and colleague in "Magic Twilight") takes the place of the bass player in the group, Sergey Mavrin becomes the second guitarist, and Maxim Udalov becomes the drummer. The latter before ARIA played together in "Black Coffee" and "Metallaccord".

First great performance updated ARIA took place in April 1987 at the concert opening the festival "Melodies of Friends". This annual festival passed through the capitals and largest cities of the USSR and lasted about a month. The concerts proved that ARIA, contrary to rumors, did not die. After the festival, ARIA went on a concert tour that lasted until August. During it, in between performances, the musicians worked on songs for the new album.

In August 1987, the band began recording their third album, finishing within a month. After the release of "Hero of Asphalt" (initially the album was to be called "In the Service of the Force of Evil") it became clear that the change in line-up benefited the team. Many characterize the album as one of the band's best albums. The tour in support lasted two years with a full house at every concert. Published a year later with a circulation of more than one million, vinyl sold out instantly, a year later it was almost impossible to find it on the shelves.

A video was shot for the song "Street of Roses", in which the group's fans took part as extras. The clip was directed by Dmitry Mamatov and Sergey Komarov, the video appeared on the screens in the program "Musical Elevator" and immediately took first place in the hit parade.

In winter, ARIA goes on her first foreign tour, to Berlin. Having given several successful concerts, the group received an invitation to the "Days of the Wall" festival in the summer of 1988, where they performed in front of an audience of 120,000 people.

All this time, relations with the management continued to heat up, another conflict was outlined, the musicians seriously thought about leaving Viktor Vekshtein. The first could not stand Maxim Udalov. In October 1988, he leaves, and in November, Alexander Manyakin is taken in his place.

In January 1989, the group, already without the support of Viktor Vekshtein, begins recording the fourth album - "Playing with Fire". Yury Fishkin (an acquaintance of Kholstinin and Dubinin from the Magic Twilight group) becomes the manager of ARIA.

The album comes out in April 1989. After its release and filming of the video for the song "Give me heat!" (directed by Evgeny Pakhomenkov), the group went on a long tour of Russia and Germany. ARIA took part in the Berlin festival "Rock Summer" and played very successful concerts in four major cities. In the spring of 1990, Vitaly Dubinin and Sergey Mavrin signed a contract with the Lion Heart group and left for Munich, but already in August, having found an opportunity to break the contract, they returned. ARIA, having celebrated its fifth anniversary with concerts at the ZIL Palace of Culture, begins to prepare its fifth album for recording.

"Blood for Blood" comes out in the fall of 1991 at Synthesis Records. With "Krov za Krov" the band's albums were designed by the artist Vasily Gavrilov.

The concert tour "Blood for Blood", in which Maxim Udalov participated as a sound engineer, recorded only 9 cities in his luggage. The musicians decide to go known path- creating your own recording studio. So in the middle of 1994, "ARIA Records" appeared.

In the same year, ARIA signed a five-year contract with MOROZ Records, one of the results of which was the release in the summer of 1994 of all five early albums groups (including the unreleased Delusions of Grandeur and Who Are You With?).

In the summer of 1994, the band started recording the next album (the first drafts for it appeared already at the end of 1992, and the one recorded in 1993 new song"Angel Dust" was released on the compilation "Russian Metal Ballads Vol.1", released in early 1994 by "MOROZ Records"). In September 1994, having recorded the drums, ARIA for the fourth time went on a two-week tour of Germany, giving concerts in seven cities and in the legendary Berlin Hard Rock Cafe. At the end of the tour, serious friction arose with the organizers, which caused tension within the group itself. After returning to Moscow, Valery Kipelov never appeared at the studio, where work on the album was in full swing. A month later, it became known that he was performing with the Master group. "ARIANS" started looking for a new vocalist, continuing to record instrumental parts for the album. In December, Alexei Bulgakov (soloist of the Legion group) tries to replace Kipelov. And in January 1995, Sergey Mavrin left the group, saying that he did not believe in success with a new vocalist.

As a session musician, Sergey Terentyev was taken to replace Mavrin in ARIA, who later remained in the group. The problem with the vocalist is solved by Alexander Morozov, the president of the company "MOROZ Records", threatening with penalties for breaking the contract. As a result, Valery Kipelov returned to the group and recorded vocal parts for the album "Night is shorter than day", which was released in September 1995.

After the release of the new album, a video for the song "Take my heart" (directed by Dmitry Velikanov) is being shot. At the same time, Sergei Zadora became the manager of the ARIA, who, having gathered a powerful administrative group, organized a series of concerts in Moscow and other cities. During this tour, a double live album "Made in Russia" was recorded and released, which unexpectedly, but firmly and for a long time, took high places in the charts.

On August 20, 2004, ARIA played the last concert of the "Baptism of Fire" tour and immediately began recording a new, already tenth album, the material for which the group began to prepare back in the spring and summer.

However, unlike past studio sessions, the "Aryans" are not going to lock themselves in their studio until they finish creative process. In confirmation of this, in October the group again sets off on the road, with an updated concert program, conditionally called "The Best". Until the end of 2004, ARIA appeared on stage almost 30 times, first visiting Ukraine, and then driving around home country from Astrakhan to Orenburg and back. We ended the year with a real festive morning performance - already a traditional New Year's Eve concert at the Moscow CDK MAI, which, without a doubt, became the most original performance of the ARIA of the outgoing year!

A week earlier, they also remembered the most memorable event of the year 2003 - a little more than a year after the grandiose performance in Luzhniki, a double live album and a double DVD "Live Fire" finally went on sale, capturing the historical show.
The coming 2005 is a jubilee year for ARIA, and very promising for its fans: in addition to the new, by the way, already tenth, studio album, which is expected to be released before the summer, and the subsequent tour in support of the disc, a lot of surprises are expected, timed to the 20th anniversary of the legendary team! So the story continues!!!

Group "Aria": biography

The history of the Aria group is not just the fate of an individual musical group. This is a chronicle of the formation of an entire genre culture, a chronology of the appearance of other famous rock bands, whose work has become the calling card domestic genre heavy metal.

History of creation and composition

Speaking of prehistory, we should remember 1982, when MPEI students Vitaly Dubinin and Vladimir Kholstinin created the amateur rock band Magic Twilight. Dubinin soloed and played the bass guitar, then Artur Berkut came to the role of vocalist. However, the team quickly fell apart.


In 1985, Kholstinin joined the VIA "Singing Hearts", led by Viktor Vekshtein. Behind him as an accompaniment came Alik Granovsky and. The guys played VIA, but they dreamed of completely different music.

The idea to create their own male band playing in the style of hard rock was embodied by Kholstinin and Granovsky. The new group was named "Aria". The idea of ​​the name belonged to Vladimir, who appreciated its conciseness and the same spelling in Cyrillic and Latin.


The founding date of the band is October 31, 1985 - the day the first studio album "Megalomania" was released. By this time, the composition had finally become this: soloist - Valery Kipelov, drummer - Igor Molchanov, sound engineer - Alexander Lvov, backing vocalist - Kirill Pokrovsky, guitarists - Vladimir Kholstinin and Andrey Bolshakov.

In 1986, the group held their first concert, took part in several festivals, including Rock Panorama-86, thanks to the latter, the performance of the guys first hit TV. However, the activities of the team could not be called complete. The guys played as the opening act at sanctioned concerts. Genre "non-format" was not allowed for ideological reasons.


The director of the group, Vekshtein, showed miracles of ingenuity in order to approve the musical concert program "Arias" from the all-powerful artistic council. The material was “veiled” with real arias from famous operas, “justifying” the name, and prescribed by the authors of compositions by respected songwriters.

And here is the victory! On September 12, 1986, the commission approved the group's solo program and its name. Then no one thought that already in December of the same year the group would be left without the main line-up.


The split has been brewing for a long time. Kholstinin and Bolshakov did not agree on creative views. The musicians were dissatisfied with small earnings and eternal censorship, making claims to Vekshtein. As a result, Bolshakov, Granovsky, Molchanov and Pokrovsky leave and form the "Master". Leaves the team and Alexander Lvov at the invitation of the group.

Kipelov and Kholstinin, who remained in Aria, were joined by Vitaly Dubinin, who played in Magic Twilight, as well as guitarist and drummer Maxim Udalov. This composition will later be called "classic", and the third album recorded by the musicians - "Hero of Asphalt" (1987) - will also become a classic in the group's discography. The vinyl record has a circulation of 1 million copies. It's time for Aria to rise.


In 1987-1988, Aria made a tour of the USSR and traveled to Germany for the first time. In October 1988, the musicians, dissatisfied with Vekshtein's management, went to the new director, Yuri Fishkin. And in 1989, under his auspices, the new album of the "Aryans" "Playing with Fire" was released.

The 90s were a difficult period for the band. Concerts, tours - everything that yesterday still filled the life of musicians, suddenly began to disappear. Financial difficulties led to the fact that the group again split. In 1994, the "Aryans" returned after a tour of Germany without actually earning anything.


Having quarreled with the organizers, the musicians began to look for ways to earn extra money. At the suggestion of friends from the Master group, Valery Kipelov began performing in clubs to earn money. Other "Aryans" did not like it. They announced a replacement vocalist. Offended, Kipelov broke off relations with his former colleagues. Sergey Mavrin leaves after him. Sergei Terentiev takes his place.


However, Kipelov leaves not for long. Aria did not work out with new vocalists, and the record company did not want to work with the Aryans without Kipelov. Under the threat of sanctions, Dubinin and Kholstinin agree with him to return. Together they recorded the sixth album Night is Shorter than Day (1995).

Since 1998, namely with the release of the album "Generator of Evil", the media glory of the group "Aria" begins. The clip "The Hermit" got into the rotation of the Muz-TV channel and for a long time took the top lines of the hit parade. In 1999, "Aria" fills the radio airwaves, this is facilitated by the success of the song "Careless Angel". Such a wide rotation allowed the musicians to gain fans of a new generation.

The song "Careless Angel" by the group "Aria"

The year 2001 was marked by the release of the Chimera album, many songs from which instantly became hits. At this time, one of the leaders, Valery Kipelov, who had previously been fond of solo projects, finally decided to break away from the team.

Thus, in the summer of 2002, after the group's farewell tour and the final concert at Luzhniki, Kipelov and Terentiev and Manyakin, who supported him, left Aria, announcing the creation of a new Kipelov group. The first album of the musicians was marked by the ballad “I am free” (it was written back in 1997 and was included in the joint album of Mavrin and Kipelov “Time of Troubles”), which brought the group to the top of the rock charts.

Song "I'm free" group "Kipelov"

Meanwhile, "Aria" also reaped the benefits of success. The group's album Baptism by Fire, recorded with the new vocalist Artur Berkut, became the leader of the rock charts. Together with Berkut, Aria spent almost 10 fruitful years, during which wonderful projects were implemented: participation in the metal opera Elvish Manuscript (2004), the Dance of Hell concert tour (2006-2007), a concert tour dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the album "Hero of asphalt" (2007-2008), the festival "Aria Fest", which later became traditional, and many others.

In 2011, the group announced the departure of Artur Berkut. The intrigue around the name of the new vocalist was fueled by rumors about the return of Kipelov. But he immediately refused: his team was already famous and was preparing to celebrate a decade.

Mikhail Zhitnyakov from the group "Grand Courage" became the new vocalist of "Aria". With a new soloist, Aria released the album Live in Studio in 2012, where the group's old hits were covered. After that, the team began active concert and touring activities in Russia and abroad.

Aria group in the Kremlin

In 2016, in the biography of the group - an outstanding event: "Aria" performed for the first time in the Kremlin at a concert dedicated to Cosmonautics Day. The "Aryans" performed the hit "Point of no return", the music for which was written by Mikhail Zhitnyakov.

Music

The band began playing in the style of classic heavy metal. And in the early stages, such giants as Rainbow and Judas Priest were reference points in creativity. On their first foreign trip to Germany, the group was even called the Russian Iron Maiden.


Frequently changing composition, new trends, increasing competition - all this influenced the transformation of the musical genre "Arias". Soon, traditional Russian overflows become her hallmark.

The end of the 90s and the beginning of the “zero” is the time of the first lyrical rock ballads (“Paradise Lost”, “Shard of Ice”), thanks to which the group increased the circle of listeners at times.

The song "Paradise Lost" by the group "Kipelov"

In 2001, the team begins experiments with the classics. At the Invasion-2001 rock festival, Aria performed for the first time together with the Globalis Symphony Orchestra by Konstantin Krimts, and in 2002 held a joint tour, which they called Classical Aria. In 2015, as part of the celebration of the group's 30th anniversary, the musicians revived the Classical Aria project, working with the Swedish conductor Ulf Wadenbrandt. And in 2017, the rockers went on a tour of the same name.

"Aria" now

Now "Aria" is working on a new album, the release of which is scheduled for autumn 2018. The group still includes permanent Vladimir Kholstinin and Vitaly Dubinin (guitar and bass guitar), as well as guitarist Sergei Popov, drummer Maxim Udalov and vocalist Mikhail Zhitnyakov.


Fans follow the work of the "Aryans" on the official website, as well as in "Instagram" where fresh photographic material is always available.

Discography (studio albums)

  • 1985 - Megalomania
  • 1986 - "Who are you with?"
  • 1988 - "Hero of Asphalt"
  • 1990 - "Playing with Fire"
  • 1991 - "Blood for Blood"
  • 1995 - Night is shorter than day
  • 1998 - "Evil Generator"
  • 2001 - "Chimera"
  • 2003 - Baptism by Fire
  • 2006 - "Armageddon"
  • 2011 - "Phoenix"
  • 2014 - "Through all the times"

Clips

  • 1987 - Behind America
  • 1988 - Rose Street
  • 1989 - "Gimme the heat!"
  • 1991 - "Everything that was"
  • 1995 - "Take my heart"
  • 1998 - "The Hermit"
  • 2000 - "Careless Angel"
  • 2000 - Paradise Lost
  • 2001 - "Calm"
  • 2002 - "Shard of Ice"
  • 2003 - "Colosseum"
  • 2004 - Baptism by Fire
  • 2005 - "There high"
  • 2006 - "The Last Sunset"
  • 2015 - "Point of no return"

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