Russkiy Razmer

Russkiy Razmer (Russian: Русский Размер) is a significant Russian dance-pop band based in Saint Petersburg.

Origins

The group Russkiy Razmer ("Russian Size") was formed in 1993. The organizers and the first group members were two friends - Dmitriy Kopotilov and Viktor Bondaryuk.

Of course, the creative path of each of the musicians began long before this event. Viktor, the student of a building technical school, learned the techniques of playing drums. Dima mastered playing bass guitar at the age of 15, being a school-boy, and later, playing in the group with Pavel Kashin (now a famous Russian singer), learned to play keyboards. So, being occupied in different collectives, merging into one, and finding themselves again in the creative search, they persisted in their goal of realizing their dream.

The band members had to work in other fields as well. Kopotilov ran his own small business and Bondaryuk had to experience diffulties selling souvenirs in winter in booths covered with snow. Dmitry found him at that time, and suggested two phonograms of his own two songs for a new project (1990). One of the songs, "Hello, America!", was recorded in the state broadcasting studio in Saint Petersburg. Then the work for the new material began in the sound recording studio of LenNauchFilm, the state cinema company, and the first concerts were given. At the same time, a promotion was being made by the producer. A lot of time was spent searching. Minutes of desperation came about. But in the end, persistence and enormous zeal won. Kopotilov was invited to the meeting in an office. Of course, the two friends came together and signed the long-awaited contract. There appeared a possibility of taking the project out to a new level.

The first replicated album of Russkiy Razmer was recorded together with Vadim Volodin, a famous Russian sound-arranger and producer. The work was carried out in Moscow. The director was Serguey Chernykh (later - the presenter of a musical radio programme). Russkiy Razmer was the active participant in many musical TV-shows.

The video for the Song "Batman" (the album "Yu-A-Yu") reached respectable places on the top charts. In 1995 the group's female vocalist Angela left the group for her solo career. A beginning singer Alexey Lebedinsky came into the sight of the group. New friendly relations were being made.

Alexey went on a concert tour in Krasnoyarsk as a keyboardist in 1996, and the administrative questions were successfully solved by their new director, A. Levin. The album "Davay-Davay!" was recorded.

A young radio-DJ Dmitry Nagiev (now a popular TV showman, theatre and cinema actor) actively promoted the group's new compositions in a creative unity. At the same time the album "Meow" was released.

The year of 1997. A master-choreograph Yulia Koshelyova joined the group. A great help was provided by a beginning journalist Yuriy Borisov. The album "We dance?" reached America and Europe. From that moment Russkiy Razmer actively gave foreign tours (in the period of 1997-2005 the group performed in America 15 times). The Song "Angel of the Day" (the album "650") and the video (dir. by A. Igudin and A. Tikhonov) again brought the group to the high places in top-charts. Since 1999 the voice of Eleonora could be heard from the scene. Alexey Borisov, the sound engineer, constantly worked the group. There were issued the albums "Exit - OUT" (featuring Roman Chistyakov, the famous club musician in Saint Petersburg), "Ascending airflows" (featuring Dmitry Afanasyev). In the beginning of 2005 a new member, Igor Lutsenko, appeared in the collective instead of Viktor Bondaryuk, who had left the group. The foreign tours of Russkiy Razmer are not limited only with the shores of America. The group is known and welcomed in many European countries, including United Kingdom and Israel.

The current membership of the group is:
* Дмитрий Копотилов ("Dmitriy Kopotilov") - music, lyrics, vocals
* Игорь Луценко ("Igor' Lutsenko") - music, lyrics, vocals
* Элеонора Филимонова ("Eleonora Filimonova") - vocals
* Александр Борисов ("Alexander Borisov") - sound engineer
* Ирина Ястребова ("Irina Yastrebova") - director

(translated from the official web-site)

Discography

The first album of Russkiy Razmer, Ю-А-Ю ("Yu-A-Yu"), was recorded together with a female vocalist Анжела ("Angela") and Вадим Володин ("Vadim Volodin"), famous sound-arranger and producer of that time, and was a really successful debut in Russia. The album was much influenced by the rave movement and the groups like "2 Unlimited". Nevertheless, it was somewhat different from the albums of the genre. It had the "space traveling" concept and included melodic love songs connected with it.

The next album Ля-Ля-Фа ("La-La-Fa") was recorded with Профессор Лебединский ("Professor Lebedinsky") and consisted mainly of energetic and funny rave cover-versions of all-time popular Russian songs. It was later re-issued as Давай! Давай! ("Come on! Come on!") and was an even more success in Russia than the first album.

At the same time, the two guys were recording an alternative club album, which was inspired by their active club life, - Мяу ("Meow"). It had the second title: Съешь таблетку, будь здоров! ("Eat a pill and be healthy!"). The members of the band mentioned in the inlay, that it was not the propaganda of ecstasy or similar stuff (which was popular in the discotheques without it), but just of a healthy way of life. The album consists of eleven techno-rave compositions, not too energetic, but more moody. The first track from it, Человек собаке друг ("A human is a dog's friend"), reached the 12th place in the Holland club charts in 1996.

After a two-year pause, in 1998, the group presented their fifth album, Танцуем? ("We dance?"), which was again highly appreciated by public. Ten dance-pop love songs (not counting one remix) touched the hearts of millions (including non-dance music fans) with their melodic beauty, clever arrangements, deep texts and performance. The female voice on the album belongs to Лиза ("Lisa").

In the year of 1999, Viktor and Dmitriy (featuring the female vocalist Настя ("Nastya") released probably their most successful album called 650. The album got its title from 650MB volume of a CD, because it had been supposed to contain an enhanced CD-ROM part. But the enhanced version of the CD was in a very limited pressing, so it was decided to re-release the album under the title "650.2". Some new songs were added, some were excluded, and the multimedia part consisted of the contents of their official web-site, including the group's photos, live stories, videos and mp3's. The songs of 650 are perhaps less romantic, compared to the ones of Танцуем? ("We dance?"), but they represent themselves a great synthesis of creative and professional skills in writing dance-pop songs. Many of them became hits without much promotion, and it makes this album to be a very good starter to Russkiy Razmer.

Before the forthcoming studio album, the collected dance cover-versions of the popular songs (mostly songs from famous Soviet films), Next, was issued, which had been recorded in 1997 and was not of the kind of their collaboration with Профессор Лебединский ("Professor Lebedinsky").

A year later, the album БумZ-БумZ ("BumZ-BumZ") was the last in the group's most successful period. The title comes from the German slang word "bumsen" (to have sex), which is phonetically similar to the sound of a drum-machine. The album has really the "heavier" sound of the beat, but this is the only album's distinctive feature. The twelve tracks of the album are mainly quality dance-pop songs with true-to-life texts, but among them are also some tracks without vocals. Almost all of them became radio-hits and favorites of dance-pop parties. Again, without much promotion. From this album till nowadays, the group collaborates with a female vocalist Элеонора ("Eleonora")

After БумZ-БумZ ("BumZ-BumZ") the group acquired much fame remaining "in the underground" (i.e. they gave many concerts, but rarely appeared in mass-media). The albums Выход - OUT ("Exit - OUT") and Меня колбасит ("I feel groovy") were not of former great success, though they included potential hits and preserved the band's unique sound. Восходящие воздушные потоки ("Ascending airflows") was the last serious attempt to remind of their old glory. And Цyzамен ("Together" in German - zusammen) happened to be the last album recorded with Viktor, the group's leader. It consisted of the group's collected collaborative works.

External links

*http://www.russki-razmer.spb.ru/ - the band's official website (in Russian)
*http://ruhelp.com/boards/RR - the band's unofficial forum (in Russian)
*http://russki-razmer.ru/ - the unofficial site of former Russkiy Razmer's leader Виктор Бондарюк ("Viktor Bondaryuk") and his new dance-pop project АРИНА и "РАЗМЕР"_project (Arina and "Razmer" Project)
* [http://russmus.net/band.jsp?band=Russkiy_Razmer Russkiy Razmer on russmus.net: lyrics and English translations]
* [http://razmer-project.com Arina and "Razmer" Project]