Viktor Tsoi

Viktor Tsoi (21 June, 1962 - 15 August 1990) was born in Leningrad in the Russian FSR. In 1981, he and Aleksei Rybin founded the rock band Kino. Before their breakthrough album, the group received many different members, with only Yuri Kasparyan (lead guitarist) and Georgy Guryanov (drummer) staying until the band's demise after Tsoi's death.They received a taste of success during their album, Ночь (Night). That necessarily wasn't the case with Tsoi and his band, as the release of the album, while successful in sales, the members of the band received little earnings and Tsoi even stated he hated recording the album. After tha album's release, Aleksandr Titov, the band's bass guitarist left for fellow Leningrad group Aquarium and Igor Tikhomirov arrived, forming their ultimate lineup they would play as until Tsoi's untimely death. Thankfully for the band, in 1986, Joanna Stingray, an American rock musician had come to Russia and during her stay met up with Kino. Later after returning back to the US with songs from Аквариум (Aquarium), Странные игры (Strang Games) and Алиса (Alisa), she released a compliation album of songs from those bands, while Kino was starting to gain recognition both inside and outside the Russian FSR, as a result of his appearances in short films as well as in films such as АССА (Assa) and Игла (The Needle), released in 1988 with Tsoi as the protagonist, Moro. In 1989, Kino released Звезда по имени солнце (The Star Called The Sun) to success of the album. In 1990, after performing at concerts, they had temporarily moved to Latvia to record another album as a follow up to their French compilation album, Le Dernier Des Heros (Russian: Последний герой, English: The Last Hero) as well for preparing a meeting with an influential Japanese company (which could have likely been Sony Music Entertainment). Sadly, on August 15, 1990, while Tsoi was returning from a fishing trip, he fell asleep on the wheel and crashed into an Ikarus bus. He died on impact and the crash was so severe one of the wheels was never found. Upon hearing the news, people across the Soviet Union mourned his loss, some teenagers even committing suicide as a result. On January 12, 1991, the album that Tsoi and his group had been working on (unrelated to the follow-up of Последний герой), Кино (Чёрный альбом by fans in reference to it's all-black album cover, which was a tribute to Tsoi) was released, marking the end of the band. Not exactly, however. In 2020 the band, along with Tsoi's son Aleksandr Tsoi as well as Aleksandr Titov, the bass guitarist before Tikhomirov's arrival, planned for the group to have performances in Moscow and Saint Petersburg (then called Leningrad) for the group. This was postponed to 2021 however and the first performance was hosted in Saint Petersburg. A live album featuring all the songs played, named Кино в Севкабел (Kino in Sevkabel), was released, following the concert.