"AuktsYon" band performance. Kazan Circus. 1986
Qalam strives to explore the interpenetration of different cultures. To this end, we have decided to launch a series of playlists in which music mediates between different geographical and ideological spaces. Our first playlist is called ‘West to East: One Hundred Best Songs’. It will be updated several times a week, and its curation will focus on how Western pop culture has reflected the realities of the East, whether they are musical, geographical, religious, or political. (The terms ‘West’ and ‘East’ should be taken as broadly and arbitrarily as possible.)
In the archives of Russian rock music, it's not uncommon to encounter Eastern influences. And these can range from Aquarium's ‘Tibetan Tango’ and Grazhdanskaya Oborona’s (Russian for ‘Civil Defense’) ‘Pilgrims to Korea’ to TV's ‘Far East’ and Chaif's ‘Free Wind’. However, full-fledged concept albums centered on this theme were a rarity, with All Quiet in Baghdad, Auktyon's remarkable third album released in 1989, being a notable exception.
The concept of the East was broadly interpreted here. The group's keyboardist and lyricist, Dmitry Ozersky, created an artistically absurd piece centered around Harun al-Rashid. Meanwhile, the group's leader, Leonid Fedorov, said they had incorporated a variety of musical clichés into their work. The album's standout track, the quasi-Japanese song ‘Banzai’, oddly bears more resemblance to the popular Soviet-era comedy of the same name by Claude Zidi than it does with anything relating to the Land of the Rising Sun.
Fedorov, in a conversation with Qalam, recalled that the album, on the whole, turned out to be quite prophetic. For instance, during the recording of the album, relations between the USSR and China could have been better. However, today, the lyrics for the song ‘Toska’ can be seen as a significant political foreshadowing: ‘A city of sand, we have just one ages-long project; beloved lands, life is so easy here, Chinese friends forever.’ In another coincidence, the Gulf War began shortly after All Quiet in Baghdad was released by the label Melodiya.