Slavic

Olga Arefyeva (Ольга Арефьева) is a Russian singer, published poet, dancer, theater actress, and educator. Born in a small town (Verkhnyaya Salda/Верхняя Салда) outside of Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) in 1964, she—along with her band, The Ark (Ковчег)—has released a staggering 18 albums since the early 1990s and composed more than 400 original songs. She is […]

Bravo (Браво) is a classic Russian rock band formed in the 1980s. Like the popular Soviet band Secret, its style and image was inspired by Western rock, including the Beatles. Evgeniy Khavtan (Евгений Хавтан) founded Bravo in 1983, when he was a student at the Moscow Institute of Railway Engineers. The first configuration of the […]

Grigory Leps (Григорий Лепс) is a Russian singer best known for his contributions to shanson (a genre of Russian music that often tells stories about the criminal underworld). Leps is from Sochi and started playing music when he was young, which initially competed with soccer in his affections—but luckily for us, music won. He studied […]

Republika was an influential Polish rock back originally from Torun. Founded in 1978 by Jann Castor vel Wieslaw Rucsinski as Res Publica (Rzecz Pospolita), the band faced censorship from the start from the Polish communist government and changed their name to Republika. Kris Caputa, currently residing in Vancouver, British Columbia, came up with the band’s name […]

Armia is a popular Polish punk band that also incorporates elements of hard-core, gothic rock, reggae metal, symphonic rock, and jazz into their style. It’s been an important band for the Polish scene since the 1980s, and vocalist Thomas Budzyński has been the main consistent member since that time. Always holding a controversial place in the Polish alternative […]

5’nizza (pronounced “Pyatnitsa,” Russian for “Friday”) is a Russian duet who plays across the genres of hip-hop, reggae, and funk. Originally from Kharkiv, 5’nizza existed from 2000 until 2007 and then, after a long hiatus, re-formed in 2015. They have played shows around Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and the United States. 5’nizza consists of Sergei Babkin […]

KSU is a seminal Polish punk rock band, originally formed in 1978 in the city of Ustrzyki Dolne. (The name KSU comes from the city code on license plates from the Ustrzyki Dolne area.) The group has been going strong for more than thirty years, with eleven official albums and a slew of pirated and bootlegged […]

Patrick the Pan is a Polish soft rock band consisting of frontman Piotr Madej, Justyn Małodobry, Kuba Duda, and Adam Stępniowski. The band’s first album was composed, recorded, and performed entirely by Madej. Patrick the Pan’s music is soft and sad, as well as artfully composed. In Madej’s own words, their songs are “sad songs. […]