Kaftan Smeha
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Kaftan Smeha

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"Zinin I. Russian Field of experiments: “KAFTAN SMEHA”"

Who: Anatoly Riassov, the author of texts and vocalist. Is also known in literary circles – his novel “Three Hells” in 2002 got the “Debut” award
History:” We decided not to limit ourselves in means of expression as regards images and thoughts. That is why we used visual art, animation and choreography at the decoration stage already. Moreover, I got interested in the theater theories by Antonin Artaud and Samuel Beckett. The influence of these theories led Kaftan Smeha towards investigation of archetypical symbols and the area of the unconscious. We wanted to present it all as a rock opera of absurd where different musical styles were fused. However, we wanted to implement this idea in Russian, the language of Dostoyevsky, Platonov, Bashlachyov. Rock opera «Exfoliation» has been performed live since 2005, and now we are involved in the process of recording. And in general the symbol of our group is a mad clown who, playing the fool, narrates about madness and death. The life is as a story of mad man. Later on this famous image became wider, ambivalent symbols of carnival began grew on it and in general everything that is connected with substitution of sense, turning of events upside down.
Sounding: “Fundament of sounding, no matter how strange it is, traditional. I skeptically concern to compositions from a series "petrol saw and a bayan ". That is why our method as a whole is common for rock genre: large number of guitars, keyboard instruments, percussions and vocal. Now there are also wind musical instruments – famous saxophonist Sergey Letov plays on them. Of course, as well we use electronic technologies, synchronization of video and sound. Our integral instruments became old megaphone, which is tremendously deforms and compressing a vocal, and also the broken reverberator and an equalizer working as generators of noise ".
The best concert: “Probably, the most funny was performance in already nonexistent club on suburb of Moscow in 2003. We played for very strange people, for whom our performance was a real shock. In any case, after the concert even a local waiters tried to keep aside of me. Then from TV broadcast we knew that the club was closed as a brothel”.
- Rolling Stone, No 5, Moscow Russia, May 2007


Discography

Releases:
CD Layer One. Moscow, 2003
DVD Insanity. Moscow, 2005
DVD Atoms. Moscow, 2007

Photos

Bio

Kaftan Smeha was founded in 2003. Most of the concerts take place in clubs, concert halls and theaters of Moscow and Saint-Petersburg. Kaftan Smeha participated in such international music festivals as SKIF (Saint-Petersburg, 2006, http://www.kuryokhin.ru/skif), InProg (Moscow, 2006, http://www.inrock.ru), Baltic Prog Fest (Kernave, Lithuania, 2007, http://balticprogfest.com). Concert reports and interviews with the musicians were made by Russian TV-channels and radio stations.
The band’s singer, author of the lyrics and script-writer Anatoly Riassov is a winner of Debut literary prize, author of two novels. The band have released two live DVDs. At present the work on the first CD album “Exfoliation” is going on.
«I got interested in the theater theories by Antonin Artaud and Samuel Beckett. The influence of these theories led Kaftan Smeha towards investigation of archetypical symbols and the area of the unconscious. We wanted to present it all as a rock opera of absurd where different musical styles were fused. However, we wanted to implement this idea in Russian, the language of Dostoyevsky and Platonov. Rock opera «Exfoliation» has been performed live since 2005, and now we are involved in the process of recording». From Anatoly Riassov’s interview to «Rolling Stone» magazine.

English version of our official website: http://www.kaftansmeha.ru.

Page on Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/kaftansmehanew