Sergey Chubraev archive

The archive contains materials on the life and work of Sergey Kuryokhin, collected by jazz, rock, and experimental music connoisseur Sergey Chubraev from 2003 to 2017.

Sergey Kuryokhin was among the key figures of the new Leningrad musical and art scenes that emerged in the late Soviet era and drew international attention during perestroika. Kuryokhin was a composer, experimented with keyboards, made mockumentaries, organized and directed concerts and performances by the band Pop‑Mekhanika, and was involved in politics. The archive contains documents on his numerous projects and offers insight into the interactions between various groups, communities, and social circles in the 1980s and 1990s.

The archive began with a collection of video recordings of concerts, rehearsals, and TV shows and grew to include over 100 documentary videos, feature films scored by Kuryokhin (Mister Designer by Oleg Teptsov, Buster’s Bedroom by Rebecca Horn, and The Castle by Aleksei Balabanov, among other works) and movies and documentaries that feature him as an actor. The archive contains Chubraev’s video interviews with poet and writer Arkadii Dragomoshchenko, musicians Boris Grebenshchikov, Sergey Letov, Vladimir Volkov, and Oleg Karavaichuk, Kuryokhin’s first producer Leo Feigin, artists Vladislav Gavrilchik, Oleg Kotelnikov, Evgeny Yufit, German Vinogradov and Sergei Anufriev, directors Sergey Debizhev and Sergei Solovyov, and others. Also included in the archive are audio interviews recorded by Alexander Kushner as he was working on his book Sergey Kuryokhin: Bezumnaya mekhanika russkogo roka [Sergey Kuryokhin: The Mad Mechanics of Russian Rock].

The archive also includes letters and manuscripts by Sergey Kuryokhin; a collection of his records, posters, flyers, booklets and concert programs; as a selection of press clippings from the 1980s and 1990s; and photographs of apartment meetings and Pop‑Mekhanika performances. There is also a record player that belonged to Kuryokhin and musical instruments Pop‑Mekhanika played: Alexander “Fagot” Alexandrov’s saxophone and mbira, Sergey Letov’s flute, and Nikolai Olshevsky’s trombone.

About the collector

Sergey Chubraev (b. 1972) is a curator and producer of TV shows, documentary and feature films based in St. Petersburg. Items from his archive have been featured in the exhibitions ASSA. The Last Generation of the Leningrad Avant‑Garde (Research Museum of the Russian Academy of Art, St. Petersburg, 2013), Austere Style GG (Formula Gallery, St. Petersburg, 2014), Archive M (Moscow Museum of Modern Art, 2015), and OblichyA (Sheremetev Palace Museum of Music, St. Petersburg, 2016).

About Sergey Kuryokhin

Sergey Kuryokhin (1954–1996) was a musician, composer, and scriptwriter, and leader of the band Pop‑Mekhanika. In the 1970s, he played keyboard in the bands Bolshoi Zhelezny Kolokol, Golfstrim, and Anatoly Vapirov’s Jazz Ensemble. In 1981, he released his first solo record, The Ways of Freedom, with Leo Records (UK). In the 1980s, he collaborated with bands like Aquarium, Kino, and Alisa and started writing music for film. From 1984 to 1996, he organized Pop‑Mekhanika performances in Leningrad/St. Petersburg, Moscow, Stockholm, Liverpool, Nantes, Helsinki, and other cities. The band collaborated with Boris Grebenshchikov, Igor Butman, Yegor and Sergey Letov, Timur Novikov, Viktor Tsoi, Sergei Bugaev (Afrika), Oleg Garkusha, and Yuri Tsirkul.

SKIF 5