Sergey Kuryokhin

Russia, 1978–1996

Soviet and Russian pianist, composer and provocateur (1954-1996), the central figure of the Leningrad underground. His ensemble Pop-Mekhanika threw free jazz, rock, folk choirs, military bands and live animals into vast chaotic performances. He played on Aquarium's records, scored films, and staged the notorious televised hoax proving Lenin was a mushroom.

MusicRoots documents 5 artists who influenced Sergey Kuryokhin and 1 artist Sergey Kuryokhin influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.

Who influenced Sergey Kuryokhin?

• Cecil Taylor — Taylor was the decisive influence on Kuryokhin's piano: he said he reached a dead end after working through most of Taylor's music, which pushed him to find a different relationship between a musician and the instrument.
• John Coltrane — Coltrane's late free playing was among the free-jazz sources Kuryokhin absorbed when he turned to the avant-garde in the late 1970s.
• Ornette Coleman — Coleman's break with fixed harmony is part of the free-jazz vocabulary behind Kuryokhin's improvising.
• Sun Ra — Pop-Mekhanika stood in the line of Sun Ra's Arkestra — a large, theatrical, costumed improvising collective staging music as spectacle.
• Frank Zappa — Zappa's Mothers of Invention — rigorous composition wrapped in absurdist theatre — are a direct precedent for Pop-Mekhanika's mix of virtuosity and provocation.

Which artists did Sergey Kuryokhin influence?

• Aquarium — Kuryokhin played keyboards on Aquarium's records through the early 1980s, pulling the band toward the avant-garde until his ideas outgrew the role.