Komba BAKH

Komba BAKH
Komba Bakh, 2012
Background information
Origin	Kostroma, Russia
Genres	Hip hop, instrumental, dub, drum and bass, downtempo, breaks, symphonic, ethnic, reggae
Years active	2000–present
Labels	The Underground Studio N.O.G.A.
Website	www.kombabakh.ru

Members	Beanpole Apollon Kvadraphil Patap

Komba BAKH - Russian creative unity, known for its numerous musical works (55 albums of instrumental compositions and songs) and monumental art (murals). It is also an acting and performing band.

The members of Komba Bakh met while attending Kostroma Lyceum 34 and in 2000 it was decided to form the unity. There were four of them: Nikita Barinov, Alexey Logvinov, Stanislav Prigorelov and Gregory Hloponin. By that time two of them had already an education in art and music for one. Having started with a pastel drawing on the walls of the local Children Nature Exploration Station they proceeded with the opening of the home record company and sound-producing (2001 A.D.), start of the concert and internet activity (2008-2014), painting The Great Kouchkun Wall(2011) and endless world of traditions, concepts, creation of its own language. In Komba Beanpole and Apollo do the paintings and all the other members of the band take part in writing lyrics (also using the folk song and verses from other poems). It is Apollon, who is in charge of production and sampling the sound. The name Komba BAKH was invented by Qadraphil, referring to the slang word of jazzmen "Combo", which means group of four. Later on the interpretation of the name was enriched with meanings of such words as; "Combination", "Combine", " Combo". Also there is another important French meaning of the word "Combat" which means " War". So the name Comba unites all these three meanings:" four", "union", "struggle". As for BAKH, it is the acronym made from the first letter of each member's name: Beanpole, Apollon, Kvadraphil and Potap (former Hlopiara)

Komba Bakh, 2000

Komba Bakh, Chuga, 2000

History

Start

The four became friends at the end of the school years and decided to form the band. It happened at night from the 5th to the 6 th of February 2000 in the Kostroma city. This date corresponds to the transition from Memorial Day of all Kostroma's saints with the birthday of Apollon and Bob Marley. To celebrate that date there was a home party at Kvadrafill's house, accompanied with LP's scratching and dancing, Apollo was officially appointed to be the director of the underground studio N.O.G.A.

A few days later Komba Bakh set about painting with pastel on the stucco walls of the Children Nature Exploration Station. Having made a business agreement with the watchmen of the station and local guys, from March until October K.B was seriously involved into creation of its first mural. The length of the painted wall was about 18 meters. It was damaged by fire on many occasions and a few years after completely dismantled. Along with painting the wall Beanpole and Apollo carried out single night raids to paint on the walls, surrounding Kostroma railway station. Because of the vulnerability of the pastel works most of them didn't survive, however, pastel technique was of high importance to Combinati since it gave fingers direct physical contact with the wall. Choogie, which is preparatory drawings, done by colored crayons, were of great help in developing drawing skills. All choogies were usually done during school lessons or at home. A year after, when Apollon became the owner of the first personal computer, he got the opportunity to do the sound producing and started composing music. The other members of Komba Bakh took an active part in writing the lyrics and singing. However the first Compact Cassette (Zero album) wasn't released since it didn't satisfy Apollos standards of quality and its content left much to be desired.

Compact Cassette Age

After the failure of the "zero album" the management of the underground studio N.O.G.A. switched to breakbeat and permanent work with samples, recorded to computer from Compact Cassett, radio, and LPs which collection was started by Apollo's father, archpriest Andrei (Logvinov). Apart from samples, Apollo was into recording bass guitars, keyboards and used drum machine's software. All the albums of that time (from 1st to 6th)were released on Compact Cassette and could be appreciated by 5 people only, the most nearest and dearest. These album haven't been published to its full extent yet. Around that time Komba made its debut on a stage with the song "Clonehup".

CD Age

The new age for Komba Bakh began with the opportunity to replicate its own. CDs from the 8th album, the band started attracting listeners elsewhere and the auditory went on increase. CDs were given away individually only to closest friends and family members. An important episode was the collaboration with the sound-producer of "Auto-radio" Stanislav Svintcov, who gave a few advices on how to work with the sound and pointed out to the necessity of refrain in songs. The second performance on a stage took part during "Student's spring of K.S.U." in Kostroma, December 2003. The band performed such songs as "Town Kostroma" and "You are Russian. Voice the 4th". The purchase of the first mixing console and microphone in 2004 positively affected quality of the sound of the 24th and the following albums. After the 22nd album Anna Glinina and Ilya Pick (flute and vocal) joined the band and approximately at that time the first attempts to conduct live gigs with the entire band were undertaken, for example participation in a few rap festivals in Ivanovo.

Concert and Internet Age

By 2007 among Komba Bakh members were: Apollo-guitars, vocal; Ilya Pick-flute, vocal; Beanpole-bass, vocal; Sergei Tsimliakov-bass, domra; Anna Glinina-Tsimliakova-vocal; Potup-vocal, keyboards; Kvadra-vocal, trumpet; Ivan Bolotov-drums. The rehearsals took place at night in the building of a local Musical School. The first full-fledged performance of the entire band can be considered the participation in the regional and international festivals of Orthodox Art Song "Confession of the heart" (Kostroma, December, 2007-January 2008) while the first personal gig took place in Schebekino, Belgorod region on February 14, 2008. Along with the start of the concert activity the official web site was set in operation, where there were no information about the participants, since it served as a springboard for the placement of mp3, images, glossary and references. Komba's web site roused public interest and their work received attention of a journalist Alexandre Gorbachev, who in turn wrote several articles in the mass media. Also the work of the Komba Bakh was mentioned in other periodicals: "Limonka", "Zavtra", "Naslednik", "Neskuchny sad ", etc. In the following years the Komba Bakh performed in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Belgorod, Kostroma, Yekaterinburg, Belarusian villages,suburban towns of Moscow and Yaroslavl. The band's membership changed several times: in 2013 Natalia Eremina was the last to join, while Anna and Sergei Tsimliakov, Nikolai Morosov (guitar) and Valentin Filippov (bass, percussion) left Komba. Also an important place was taken up by a portable studio Korg D-888, which enriched the sound of live concerts and brought the arrangements to their studio sound.

54 live!

Increasing in number song repertoire for live performances, Komba Bakh had lists of interchangeable songs and hits, that formed the concerts. Despite the great number of instrumental tracks on albums, the entire band only once tried to play live one of them. By the time the 54th album had been released, an unprecedented decision was made: to try to make out, rehearse and perform 54th live as one whole piece, including all instrumental compositions. Thus by the its release on line, group members were already in process of rehearsal of complex, rich in rhythms, style,fine tuned program, using all its technical resources. Undoubtedly the main sound decoration of " 54 live" became a rare keyboard Fender Rhodes. The new concert program was performed in Moscow, St Petersburg and Kostroma, where it was recorded and filmed. Meeting the needs of Komba to come up with a decent program, "54 live" at the same time meant the use and transportation of almost all entire equipment of the underground studio N.O.G.A. and maximum involvement of each and every participant, which caused unusual difficulties.

Painting

Feeling themselves to be the heirs and successors of the Russian Art, Komba Bakh, set up as an example works of St Andrei Rublev and his co-worker Daniel Chorny. In fine art, both monumental as well as easel painting, Komba widely used "carpet" fills of the surface with various motives: floral, animalistic, ornamental, landscapes, imaginary, architectural, decorative and less frequent-portraits. In order to reflect reality in its full Komba Bakh uses copying from photographs and drawings of other authors. In addition to crayons and pastels they also use oils and acrylic paints. There was also developed a concept of "pre-more- lettering", where parts and elements of the stylized letters are either being cut or added. In course of time most of the street art was destroyed and painted over. Only once did Apollo draw all over the fence for money, which resulted in ornamentation of 9 meter board with oil paints. The most grandiose work of art, done by Komba Bakh, was a Great Kouckun Wall enclosing the football pitch of Sunday School in Belarus. The Length of the wall is 48 meters and the height equals to 2 meters. The process lasted for 3 months from August to October 2011. In May 2014 Comba for the first time took part in the exhibition of young painters, where it presented 9 works from private collections.

Discography

The name, that Komba gives to its albums is very simple: "issues". Thus by now the unity has already released 55 "Issues" which you can find on the official web site.

References

External links

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