Ambiguous art of Alexander Laertes

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

A person juicy, believable, sometimes reaching the point of absurdity, describing the world of the Soviet era, modern life, using all the "charm" of profanity, once became a laureate of the composer competition. Gustav Mahler in the Netherlands. A wonderful musician who plays the harp, a synthesizer and a guitar, the founder of the chamber music ensemble "Voices of the Relatives", a radio host, a writer - all this is about Alexander Laertsky.

Biography

The musician was born in Moscow on March 5, 1964, his real name was Uvarov. There are practically no mentions, Alexander Laertsky himself does not talk about his family, the musician’s childhood is still an unsolved mystery. It is only known about his wife, whom he considers a "single specimen" and humorously calls Aunt Nadia. After getting married, he decided to do the opposite and took his wife's surname.

Composer, poet, writer, actor, journalist,singer, radio host - one of the most mysterious representatives of the rock community. The author of informal lyrics with countless texts full of obscene language. From the very beginning, he was a separate figure in the rock scene and remains so.

After technical school, ornithology became the first profession. He studied mountain birds, hummingbirds, and was engaged in the design of air routes based on the migration routes of migratory birds. In 1987, Alexander got a job at the Design Research Institute. Karpov as a computer technician, where he found musical like-minded people and created a group. After the school punk rock gang, this is his first serious project. He is the founder and indispensable leader of the Laertes Band, the Voices of the Relatives ensemble.

In the spring of 2011, the musician had a stroke. Significant amounts of money were required for his rehabilitation, so friends and colleagues in the workshop held fundraising campaigns and organized charity concerts. The artist stopped active creative activity, he could neither sing nor play the guitar, but did not give up and continues to write poetry, work on a book for children about the canary Chirik. Now writes maxims for the online version of the men's magazine.

It is surprising that Laertsky basically refused to shoot video clips for his songs, and he recorded all the last albums alone at his home studio, so it took, sometimes, a couple of years to record one. Few people know, but Alexander is a talented watercolor painter. Reproductions of his paintings are used in the design of some of hisalbums.

The beginning of the creative path

He gathered his own musical group at school in 1979, it lasted for several years. Then, while studying at a technical school from 1982-1985. the musical activity of Alexander Laertes was temporarily interrupted, and only by 1986 the team was reassembled. Inspired guys recorded "Heat Sector". As Alexander Laertsky recalled, songs were born quickly:

Two guitars and a man was banging on pots.

The record was distributed among the students of the Faculty of Chemistry of Moscow State University and was a success. The second offspring, "Coming from the lower apartments", was recorded on a regular tape recorder and was distinguished by hooligan motives.

Music projects

The songs of Alexander Laertes, endowed with black humor, irony, everyday themes and profanity, became known before the author himself. The first albums, recorded on a magnetic tape of a conventional tape recorder, were not intended for a wide audience, but found their fans.

After the musician got a job at the research institute, I discovered that there are a lot of talented guys working there who also write songs. In 1985, the acoustic project "Hairy Glass" was released, which subsequently caused an incomprehensible confusion with the name of the group. In 1987, the guys recorded three albums: Rastut Rebiata Patriotami ("Guys are growing up as patriots"), "Kobzonoid", "Day of Knowledge". Not the best quality audio recordings, began to spread with greatspeed. Albums of black humor by the Hairy Glass group, which, in principle, did not really exist, roamed among students, taxi drivers, and rock parties. In the same year, Laertes' solo album "Midnight Blues" was released.

Soon it was decided to recruit the classical composition of the group - piano, violin, guitar, percussion, bass cello and call the band "The Persistence of Memory". In this composition, several high-quality studio albums were recorded: Swedenborg's Oval Mirror, Pioneer Dawn, Woman with a Trumpet, Milkers of Exhausted Toads. Alexander Laertsky became the author of the most famous songs: "Children bury a horse", "Iron stick sticks out in the stomach", "Young Komsomol member" hits scattered throughout the camp. By the end of the 80s. the team broke up. Laertsky practically did not appear on stage, his public appearances were reduced to apartment houses until 1992

Laertes Band

Since the early 90s. At the concerts of Alexander Laertsky, he began to accompany the accompanying group "Laertsky Band", consisting mainly of young, academically educated musicians. Performances on stage resembled gatherings with quotes from Alexander's poems and favorite songs.

All concerts were sold out. Together with Laertsky, K. Suvorov (drums), A. Korolev (keyboards), bassists A. Kulakov, V. Kozinsky performed at concerts (then Ya. Ruvinov appeared in 1996).

Most of the material wasofficially re-released in 1996 by "Elias", then Alexander Laertsky recorded albums of recent times alone at his own home studio.

Radio and TV

From 1992 to 2001 the musician worked at the radio stations "Echo of Moscow" and "Silver Rain". In 1993, Laertsky - the host of the weekly hour-long program "Curfew". From an hourly program, it then developed into a nightly program called "Montmorency". Since 1996, the same program began to appear on the Silver Rain radio station, this happened for the first time in the history of radio broadcasts. The charisma, charm and intellect of Alexander Laertes took over.

Since 2007, he has been writing his own column in the Medved magazine. But the true fame and recognition of Alexander Laertes as a radio host came after the release of the Montmorency program. In 2011, on the Nostalgia television channel, he became the author and host of the Flask of Time program, where, together with callers via Skype and the phone, he recalled and discussed old Soviet memes. He was invited as a guest, an expert on radio and TV shows.

The Art of Laertes

The musician's songs are rich in "drama", each is a short story about something unusual or tritely simple. Most often they are filled with toilet humor and obscene language. Sometimes Laertes is called the king of song memes.

The aesthetics of his art is extremely unsophisticated and stingy. He neverwas recorded professionally, all compositions were recorded in an ordinary apartment, while the musician played the role of a guitarist, keyboardist, vocalist and arranger, only occasionally inviting assistants for a high-quality instrumental solo or for singing along.

Discography and filmography

In addition to the author's song, Laertsky managed to light up as the author of music for films and an actor:

1. The film "Ordinary days" - 2001
2. Film "Grim" - 2009
3. H/f "Star Pile" (author of music) - 2012
4. X/f "Territory of Jah" (author of music) - 2014

Musician's albums:

• "Slapping Life", "Weary Toad Milkers", "Songs" - 1987;
• "Pioneer Dawn" - 1988;
• "Oval Swedenborg Mirror" - 1988-1989;
• "The Thule Society" - 1989;
• "Children Bury a Horse", "Reason for Optimism", "Woman with Trumpet" - 1990;
• "Childhood clean little eyes" - 1992;
• "Udder" - 1998;
• "Bastards" (in collaboration with O. Gastello) - 1998;
• "Inconspicuous Socks" (compilation) - 1986-1999;
• recordings of the project "Voices of Relatives" (for 1997-1999) - 2000;
• "Faces" (in cooperation with DUB TV) - 2007;
• "Herman's Friends" (in cooperation with DUB TV) - 2010;
• "Trampling borscht rags" (together with "Forbidden drummers") -2011;
• "Women's Lives" - 2012

After having he alth problems, Alexander was forced to give up singing songs and playing the guitar, but he continues to write poetry, does not give up. In many ways, he is supported by former colleagues and friends.