Little Tragedies (-Malenkiye Tragediyi) are a

Russian language Russian is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language belonging to the Balto-Slavic languages, Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. It is one of the four extant East Slavic languages, and is ...

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

art rock Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that generally reflects a challenging or avant-garde approach to rock, or which makes use of modernist, experimental, or unconventional elements. Art rock aspires to elevate rock from entertainment to an ar ...

and

symphonic rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed "progressive pop", the ...

band from

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. Arguably the most important

band in

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 Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

and heavy

. The music of Little Tragedies is very melodic and always features a keyboard solo with an improvisation accent. The band are one of the only progressive rock bands in

using Moog and Hammond keyboards. Most of the songs of the band are based on known Russian poets, especially

Nikolai Gumilev Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilev (also Gumilyov; , ; – August 26, 1921) was a Russian poet, literary critic, traveler, and military officer. He was a co-founder of the Acmeist movement. He was the husband of Anna Akhmatova and the father of Lev ...

. The name of the group itself is taken from a piece by

Alexander Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin () was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.Basker, Michael. Pushkin and Romanticism. In Ferber, Michael, ed., ''A Companion to European Romanticism''. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. He is consid ...

. Due to the fact Ilyin moved to live in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, he sends the music scores to the band members via email, and after they learn it he arrives to

Kursk Kursk (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Kursk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Kur (Kursk Oblast), Kur, Tuskar, and Seym (river), Seym rivers. It has a population of Kursk ...

for the rehearsals and recordings.

History

Little Tragedies were founded in 1994 by the graduate of St. Petersburg Conservatory, composer Gennady Ilyin, in the city of

, after previously performing with a band called Paradox. The name was taken from a play by

. 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''. 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, Little Tragedies released their first two albums, ''The Sun of Spirit'' and ''Porcelain Pavilion'', on the record label Boheme Music. The albums were recorded by Ilyin in 1998–1999, with the help of musicians Igor Mihel (guitar) and Yevgeniy Shukin (audio engineering). Though originally recorded as Gennady Ilyin's solo albums, Ilyin decided to release the albums under the Little Tragedies name. In summer 2000, Alexander Malakhovsky (guitar) and Aleksey Bildin (saxophone) joined the original trio (Ilyin, Skripkin and Babynin). 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

, and the album also became available for the

n public. In 2003 the band released their fourth album, ''New Faust'', a double

concept album A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...

which was written back in 1997–98. In 2006 the band released a fifth album, ''The Sixth Sense''. In the same year the band opened the second day of the

InProg InProg was an international progressive rock festival held almost yearly since 2001 in Moscow, Russia. The festival was organised by the Russian Rock-magazine InRock. The organizers of this festival called it "a festival of intellectual music", ...

2006 festival. In 2007 the band released the first and later the second part of their sixth album based on

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

translations to

Chinese poetry Chinese poetry is poetry written, spoken, or chanted in the Chinese language, and a part of the Chinese literature. While this last term comprises Classical Chinese, Standard Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, Yue Chinese, and other historical and vernac ...

, ''Chinese Songs'', with the main theme of the album being the relationship between man and nature. In 2006 an event happened which attracted the media attention when the instruments of the band were stolen from their rehearsal studio. The thief was caught and the instruments were returned to the band. In August 2008 the band recorded an instrumental Christmas album called ''The Magic Shop'', which was written ten years before. It was released in November 2009 as a free download on the band's web-site as a Christmas gift for the fans. In 2009 the band finished recording a new album called ''Obsessed''. In 2014 Little Tragedies held a special performance in the

Philharmonic Hall to celebrate twenty years since the founding of the band. It was planned show would be later released on a double DVD. It was the first live concert held by the band since 2006. The concert was the band's first live performance in seven years, mostly due to the fact the lead singer had moved to

, whilst the rest remained in

In 2019, the band released ''Paradise behind the Stove'' with a different record label, Macalla records. The band celebrated the release of the new album with a show commemorating their 25's anniversary.

Discography

Studio albums

* ''The Sun of Spirit'' – ''Солнце Духа'' (2000, Boheme Music) (2009, re-release, MALS) * ''Porcelain Pavilion'' – ''Фарфоровый павильон'' (2000, Boheme Music) (2009, re-release, MALS) * ''Return'' – ''Возвращение'' (2005, Musea Records) (2006, re-release, MALS) * ''New Faust'' – ''Новый Фауст'' (2006, MALS, Double Album) * ''The Sixth Sense'' – ''Шестое чувство'' (2006, MALS) * ''Chinese Songs'' – ''Китайские песни'' (2007, MALS, Double Album) * ''Cross'' – ''Крест'' (2008, ''MALS'') * ''Paris Symphony'' – ''Парижская симфония'' (2009, Musea Records) * ''The Magic Shop'' – ''Волшебная лавка'' (2009, released as a free download on the internet) (2014, re-release, Musea Records) * ''Obsessed'' – ''Одержимый'' (2011, Musea Records) * ''At Nights'' – ''По ночам'' (2014, Musea Records) * ''Paradise behind the Stove'' - ''Запечный рай'' (2019, Macalla records) Re-released in 2009 as Gennady Ilyin's solo albums by MALS.

References

External links

The band's official web-site

About the band in the Prog Archives

An English-language interview from an Italian web-site

(Russian)
History of the band on another web-site
(Russian)

(Russian) {{Authority control Musea artists Russian progressive rock groups Russian art rock groups Musical groups established in 1994 1994 establishments in Russia