Little Tragedies

Little Tragedies
Origin	Kursk, Russia
Genres	Progressive rock, Art-rock, Symphonic rock
Years active	1994–present
Labels	Boheme Music (2000) Musea Records (2001, 2008) MALS (2001-present)
Website	Littletragedies.com
Members
Gennady Ilyin (Composer, Keyboards, Vocals)(1994-present) Oleg Babynin (Bass guitar)(1994-present) Yuri Skripkin (Drums)(1994-present) Alexander Malakhovsky (Guitar)(2000-present) Aleksey Bildin (Saxophone)(2000-present)

Little Tragedies (Russian: Маленькие Трагедии-Malenkiye Tragediyi) are a Russian language progressive rock, art-rock and symphonic rock band from Russia. Arguably the most important Russian progressive rock band.^[1]

Style

The band described its style as "a battery of keyboards - drums - bass; hard rhythm section support and soloing keyboards". Little Tragedies has their very own style, influenced by classical music and heavy art-rock. The music of Little Tragedies is very melodic and always features a keyboard solo with an improvisation accent.^[2]

History

"Little Tragedies" were founded in 1994 by the graduate of St. Petersburg Conservatory, composer Gennady Ilyin, in the city of Kursk. The group's first recording, 1, was never recorded as an album. It exists only on an amateur videotape made from the group's only concert at that moment.

Since 1995 the band was a trio: Gennady Ilyin - keyboards; Yuri Skripkin - drums; Oleg Babynin - bass. With such a line-up the group played till 2000.

After visiting Paris, Gennady Ilyin started working on the Paris Symphony. Although this album was recorded in a professional studio in Moscow and was more than once performed by the group in music schools and concert halls, it remained unrecognized until 2008 when the French label Musea Records surprisingly released it.

1997 - the beginning of 1998. It took G. Ilyin a month to compose a fairytale ballet "Magic Shop" about a little girl's Christmas adventures. He practiced it with the band and it was performed on the stage only two and a half years later.

In the year 2000, the band released its first two albums, The Sun of Spirit and Porcelain Pavilion, on the record label Boheme Music. The albums were recorded in 1998–1999, with the additional musicians Igor Mihel (Guitar) and Yevgeniy Shukin (Audio engineering).

In summer 2000, Alexander Malakhovsky (guitar) and Aleksey Bildin (saxophone) joined the trio. With the new line-up, in 2001 the group created the last album of the trilogy to the poems of N. Gumilev, Return (the first were The Sun of Spirit and Porcelain Pavilion). The album was first released by the French label Musea Records. At the same time the band signed with the record label MALS, the biggest progressive music label in Russia, and the album also became available for the Russian public.

In 2003 the band released their fourth album, New Faust, a double concept album which was written back in 1997–98. In this album Faust is not only the character of a national drama who is conflicting with the society, but he is also a man of the universe seeking ways to clean his soul and acquire a spirit.

In 2006 the band released a fifth album, The Sixth Sense. In the same year the band opened the second day of the InProg 2006 festival.

In 2007 the band released the first and later the second part of their sixth album based on Russian translations to Chinese poetry, Chinese Songs, with the main theme of the album being the relationship between man and nature. In 2008 the band released Cross, which was recorded in August 2007. In 2009 the French label Musea Records will release the Paris Symphony, an unreleased album recorded by the band in 1997 when it featured only three members.

In August 2008 the band recorded an instrumental Christmas album called The Magic Shop, which was released on November 2009 as a free download on the band's web-site as a Christmas gift for the fans.^[3] At the same year the band's record-label MALS re-released The Sun of Spirit and Porcelain Pavilion, with bonus-tracks.

In 2009 the band finished recording a new album, called Obsessed. The album is due to be released in 2010.^{[dated info]}

Discography

• The Sun of Spirit (2000, Boheme Music)(2009, re-release, MALS)
• Porcelain Pavilion (2000, Boheme Music)(2009, re-release, MALS)
• Return (2005, Musea Records)(2006, MALS)
• New Faust' (2006, MALS. Double Album)
• The Sixth Sense (2006, MALS)
• Chinese Songs' (2007, MALS. Double Album)
• Cross (2008, MALS)
• Paris Symphony (2009, Musea Records)
• The Magic Shop (2009, released as a free download on the internet)
• Obsessed (2010, MALS. To Be Released)

Trivia

• The name Little Tragedies is taken from a title of a book by Alexander Pushkin.
• The concept album New Faust, which was released in the year 2006, was written already back in 1997-8.
• In 1988 Gennady Ilyin tried to form a band named Paradox, but that did not work-out.^[4]
• Since 1994 Gennadiy Ilyin lives in Germany and comes to Russia a few times a year for rehearsals and recording sessions.^[4]

References

1. ^ Interviste
2. ^ Little Tragedies
3. ^ http://littletragedies.com/magic_shop.htm
4. ^ ^{a b} Маленькие трагедии

External links

• The band's official web-site
• The history of the band on their official web-site
• About the band in the Prog Archives
• An English-language interview from an Italian web-site
• English translations to the lyrics of the band
• An interview with the leader of the band on another web-site (Russian)
• History of the band on another web-site (Russian)
• An article about main Russian Progressive rock and Art-rock bands where Little Tragedies are mentioned (Russian)