‘Bogrukinog’

Boris Grebenshchikov’s new album is available free on Bandcamp. In four allegorical songs, the exiled master songwriter blends sorrow and hope for today’s Russia.

Boris Grebenshchikov, the lead man of the iconic Russian experimental band “Aquarium,” now based in London, has released a new album with the cryptic title “Bogrukinog” (translating roughly as “God-arms-and-legs”).

The release is part of Grebenshchikov’s BG+ project, which started in 2022, and its list of credits is both inclusive and diverse. The four new songs, recorded with “Aquarium” members Liam Bradley (drums) and Konstantin Tumanov (keyboards), also feature collaborations with the Scottish Sessions Orchestra, St. Petersburg Boys’ Choir, and the master of traditional Tyvan throat singing Albert Kuvezin.

BG’s new lyrics showcase his trademark allegorical language, blending eclectic influences into a coherent pacifist vision. One of the songs, for example, has these lines:

Splendidly young, we left our home.

Greetings, we’re tabula rasa —

the world was awaiting our deeds.

But crowbars and meathooks and the serial killer

in the commissar’s eye —

we were cannon fodder

since before we were born.

But their chains aren’t that strong.

Independent Russian media reported in the past that Grebenshchikov’s band “Aquarium” is on the Russian authorities’ unofficial list of banned artists whose live performances the government strongly discourages. Grebenshchikov himself has been designated a “foreign agent” by the Russian Ministry of Justice.

The four-track album is available for purchase or listening free of charge at the online record store and music community Bandcamp. “Aquarium” is now touring Europe, with upcoming live concerts in Munich, Rome, Limassol, and other cities.