Alexander Bashlachev | Artist

Alexander Bashlachev aka "SashBash" was a Russian poet and folk-rock singer born 1960 in Cherepovets, Soviet Union. Inflicted by chronic depression, Bashlachev died after falling from the window of a ninth floor apartment on Kuznetsov Avenue in Leningrad on 17 February 1988, at the age of 27. In his short but brilliant career, Alexander Bashlachev transitioned between the bard music popular in the U.S.S.R. from 1950-1980 and the subsequent rock & roll movement of the '80s and '90s. Matching his lyrics with guitar melodies, Bashlachev bridged artistic genres, introducing the idealism and integrity of Russian poetry and prose into popular music. Starting out, Bashlachev graduated from Cherepovets High School then worked as a painter at the local Metallurgical Plant with his father. He took part in literary competitions as a teenager and published a collection of poems by Vladimir Vysotsky and Sergei Yesenin. In 1978, he resigned from the plant to enroll at the Ural State University in Yekaterinburg as a journalism major, and graduated in 1983. The same year Bashlachev wrote "Griboyedov Waltz," his first song. In May 1984, he attended the Leningrad Rock Festival, purchasing an acoustic guitar which he taught himself to play. Over the years, he would play several small apartment concerts, called "kvartirniks" which were held to promote a musician's work, to support the underground rock scene, and, in some instances, to work around governmental censors of music. Police raids of such concerts were commonplace. In March 1985, Bashlachev, along with Yuri Shevchuk, played at the Leningrad Rock Festival. The two performed before an audience of six hundred. A recording of this concert was released under the title of "Kochegarka." Officially a worker at a coal boiler station popularly known as Kamchatka (which also served as an underground rock venue), Bashlachev became a member of the Leningrad Rock Club. In June 1987, he performed at the Leningrad Rock Festival for the second and final time and was awarded the Nadezhda (Hope) prize. As a recording artist, Bashlachev is credited with 16 original releases, mostly taken from live sessions or impromptu sessions with colleagues, due to the lack of established professional recording facilities available to underground artists in Soviet Russia. All recordings were released posthumously. Standouts include The Time of Little Bells (1989), Eternal Fasting (1994), Evil (1994), The Third Capital (1994), and archival releases Bashlachev IV (1996) and Bashlachev V (1998). Bashlachev's music and lyrics affirmed the uniqueness of the Russian people in their ability to retain their individuality in the most trying times, and inspired other musicians to persist through unthinkable oppression by the official sector. The poet himself ended his own life just short of the collapse of the U.S.S.R.

Artist Website: wikipedia/Alexander_Bashlachev

Featured Albums: Alexander Bashlachev

Related Artists: Yanka Dyagileva

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