Alexander Kostarev

Alexander Kostarev
Born	1 July 1954 (1954-07-01) (age 57)
Origin	Sverdlovsk, RSFSR
Genres	Instrumental, Instrumental rock, Fusion, Progressive rock, Art rock, Psychedelic rock, jazz fusion, Experimental rock
Occupations	Guitarist
Instruments	Guitar
Years active	1976–present
Associated acts	Perekrestok (1976-1986) Quadraphonic Sound Theatre (1986) CosMoBob (1986-1995, 1995-2003) Dead Music (1995) Kostarev Group (2003-present)
Website	http://cosmusic.narod.ru/

Aleksander Kostarev a Russian instrumental progressive rock musician. Though his musical career started back in the 70's, it was only the 2000s that he gained recognition, becoming one of the most important artists of the Russian progressive rock scene.

Style

Being a guitarist, the music of Kostarev is instrumental. His musical genre is usually considered progressive rock, but actually its a mixture that includes art rock, psychedelic rock, jazz fusion, experimental rock and many more.

Biography

Alexander Kostarev was born on July 1, 1954 in Sverdlovsk.

The first band he played with was Perekrestok, which was formed in 1976 while being students at the Ural University.

In 1986 Kostarev moved to Moscow and together with other musicians started a band called Quadraphonic Sound Theatre, which soon changed to CosMoBob. At the same time Kostarev worked with many Russian jazz and rock musicians as a session guitarist, one of them being Yegor Letov.

In 1995 CosMoBob changed its name to Dead Music, but soon returned to CosMoBob.

In the 2000s Kostarev started performing solo and gained popularity as one of the most important Russian progressive rock figures.

In 2003 the band CosMoBob decided to change its name to Kostarev's Group. In 2003 the Kostarev Group first album was released by Starless Records. The album was called Live@InProg 2003 and it was recorded during the bands performance at the InProg music festival in 2003.

In the years 2003-2005 Kostarev Group was a constant act in the InProg festival, the 2000s most important progressive rock festival in Russia and one of the most important in the world.

In the year 2006 Alexander Kostarev was specially invited to lead the Jam session that concluded the first day of the InProg 2006 festival. At the same year the Kostarev Group song "who's flying over me" appeared on the "Theme of Appreciation - A Worldwide Tribute to Eddie Jobson" compilation.

In 2006 Alexander Kostarev released a compilation called Kostarev. Works 1978-2006, which included chosen recordings of Alexander Kostarev and different groups he played with at the period of 1978-2006.

Discography

• Kostarev Group. Live@InProg 2003 (Live album)(2003)
• Kostarev. Works 1978-2006 (compilation)(2006)

Trivia

• In 1987 the guitar-maker Yevgeniy Berezov created specifically for Alexander Kostarev a green extra-long guitar which has 29 frets on a 770 mm length scale tuned in the C# key. The name Alexander gave to it was "a green long instrument". It turns into a regular E-key-tuned guitar once a capo is placed at the third fret.^[1]
• Kostarev appeared six times in the InProg festival. Currently, it is the record for the biggest number of appearances in the InProg festival for one man/band.

References

1. ^ kost_ins

External links

• The official site of the Kostarev Group (English) (Russian)
• The Kostarev Group Myspace page (English)
• Kostarev's personal page in LiveJournal (Russian)
• About the band from the Russian Association Of Independent Genres site (English)
• An article about the main Russian progressive rock and art-rock bands where Kostarev's group are mentioned (Russian)
• A review about the Live@InProg 2003 album (English)
• About the band from another web-site (Russian)

Persondata
Name	Kostarev, Alexander
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	July 1, 1954
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death