Troeraznykh (Троеразных; the name translates to “three different”) is a Kyrgyz rap collective most of whose songs are in Russian. They originally consisted of two beatmakers and one guitarist—or, as Boorsok, a Kyrgyz magazine, has put it, “three forms who don’t resemble one another even by a drop.” They aim to be a “human” group, […]
Saltanat Ashirova (Салтанат Аширова) is a Kyrgyz rock and pop singer known for her “crystal voice,” according to New Faces (Новые лица). She sings mostly in Russian. In addition to her solo career, she is known for her membership in the now-broken-up band Eles and in her new project, The M.A.P. She sings and plays […]
Ilyaz Abdrazakov (Ильяз Абдразаков) is a contemporary Kyrgyz rock/pop singer. He is ethnically also part Kazakh, but sings mostly in Kyrgyz. Unusual among the small crowd of contemporary Kyrgyz singers, he uses harder rock instrumentation and sometimes electronica in his music, and while his voice is part of the current tradition of smooth, easy-to-listen-to voices, […]
Gulnur Satylganova (Гульнур Сатылганова) is a very popular contemporary and classic Kyrgyz pop(ish) singer. She is one of the best-known female Kyrgyz singers perhaps of all time—it’s hard to overstate her importance to Kyrgyz contemporary music. Satylganova was born in Toktogul, Krygyzstan, in 1968. She always dreamed of becoming a performer, but it took her […]
Aibek Zamirov (Айбек Замиров) is a Kyrgyz pop singer who sings in both Kyrgyz and Russian (and occasionally English). He is best known for participating in the duet Bishkek with Arsen (Арсен) when the two were representing Kyrgyzstan at the New Wave international music festival in 2011. They were competing separately at first, but for […]
Daniel Bloom (born Daniel Borcuch) is a composer, music producer, and musician from Kwidzyn, northern Poland. He also runs his own music studio, Two Minutes Elsie Studio. He studied music in school, particularly piano, and then studied archaeology at university. Bloom’s career is multifaceted, existing in several different mediums simultaneously: his online biographies describe him […]
Błażej Król is an up-and-coming Polish musician currently active mainly in the alternative genre. He was born in Gorzów Wielkopolski, in western Poland, in 1984. He started his music career with the band Kawałek Kulki, which he founded along with Paweł Turłaj (drums) and Magdalena Turłaj (violin, vocals) in 2001 in Gorzów Wielkopolski. He himself […]
Aleksandr Novikov (Александр Новиков) is a Russian singer-songerwriter, performer, and poet who works mostly in the shanson genre, which he calls “urban romance” (городский романс). He is also the art director of Novik Records (Новик-Рекордс; “novik” also means “novice”). He was born and spent his early years on the Kuril Islands, in Sakhalin oblast, near […]
Band’Eros (Банд’Эрос) is a Russian R&B/hip-hop group that was founded in Moscow in 2005. The band’s name is a purposeful play on words – calling to mind both “banderos” – a Spanish word for an outlaw and “Band Eros” – referring to a certain sexuality within the group. The original members were Batishta (Kirill Petrov/Батишта, […]
Brother 2 (Брат 2) is the 2000 sequel to the cult favorite Brother (Брат), released in 1997. The film starts out with Danila Bagrov, the hero of both films, taking part in a television program about the heroes of the Chechen War, which he had fought in several years earlier. He gets involved soon after […]
Brother (Брат) is a highly regarded Russian drama/action film from 1997 that has achieved cult status. The main character is Danila Bagrov, who has just returned to his hometown in Russia from Chechnya, where he was fighting in the war. He gets in a fight at a concert almost immediately and attracts the attention of […]
Grzegorz Turnau is a Polish singer, poet, actor, and pianist from Kraków. While his style is very much his own, he draws on jazz influences and the Polish tradition of sung poetry and has been compared to singer Marek Grechuta, among others. Krakow Post has called him “the bard of Krakow,” referring to his penchant […]
