Father of Soviet Magnitizdat

Andrei Tropillo died. The founder of the recording studio, who worked with Kino and Aquarium, recalls music critic Artemy Troitsky

Soviet and Russian sound engineer Andrei Tropillo died on April 28 in Finland, where he lived in recent years. He was 73 years old. This was announced by his friend, artist Oleg Buryan, and his daughter Polina confirmed .

In the 1980s, the musical producer created an underground recording studio. There he worked with the main groups of Russian rock and roll, including Aquarium, Kino and Zoo. Tropillo himself said that shortly after the end of the physical faculty, he, together with his father, inventor of the radar, ended up at the first Leningrad concert “Time Machine”. The show was so impressed by Tropillo that he took up the organization of the group’s performances. In the late 1980s, the sound engineer semi-legally published records of The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones and other Western rock groups.

On April 12, 2024, Tropillo, being in the Finnish city of Porlammi, wrote his last text. It was intended for the new edition of the album "White Street" of the Zoo group. In it, he talks, in particular, about working at his Antrop studio. Musical publisher Oleg Kovriga said that the release of the White Strip was postponed precisely because Tropillo wanted to write material.

“Tropillo loves to talk. Loves very much. And it is hard for him to write. Therefore, he for more than two months forced himself to do this. On the night of April 28, my great friend died. But he managed to finish the article ",

- tells the rug.

Musical critic Artemy Troitsky in a commentary for Novaya Gazeta Europe recalled how he met Andrei Tropillo, and told how the sound engineer would be remembered.

Artemy Troitsky

Musical critic

- We met Tropillo in 1980, just at the dawn of his great ascetic activity. He worked as a regular sound engineer in one of the Leningrad palaces of pioneers. The sound recording studio was used there for ordinary pioneering purposes, but at night Andrei turned it into an underground studio by the recording of the Leningrad underground rock groups.

He began his activities back in the late 70s. I recorded, say, the group "Myths", Boris Grebenshchikov and Mike Naumenko. And in 1980, he recorded the famous “Blue Album” of Aquarium-in fact, the first studio album of the group.

And after that it went and went. At the studio, the first albums of the Kino group, the albums of the Zoo, later - the Alice group and others were recorded. That is, in fact, all the most famous works of the Leningrad rock of the 80s were recorded at the studio, which Trepillo himself called "Antrop". This was actually a historical event, since in fact Andrei invented a powerful phenomenon - the so -called Magnetizdat.

Before him was a literary samizdat, but he arose incomprehensible when and immediately in different places. And in this case, we can definitely say that he became the father of Soviet Magnitizdat. The notes were distributed primarily by the musicians themselves, sold at concerts, diverged among friends and acquaintances. As far as I know, Tropillo himself did not receive any special profit from this, but maybe at all. He was a real ascetic, a noble pioneer. And this, of course, is a historical merit. Tropillo was the most important non-musical man in the entire field of Soviet rock music. Although partly he was a musician, he was versed in music and even played along with instruments. But, of course, its main role was producing.

Tropillo and I were friends until the very recent time. Once he and I, however, were very quarreled. At the very end of the 80s, when he was appointed the director of the Leningrad branch of the company Melody, he began to stamp the pirate records of the classic Western rock-The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jim Hendrix, Tom Waits. Of course, it was one hundred percent piracy. And I pointed him to it. We quarreled with him, but not very much, because I perfectly understood that he did this not for the sake of earnings, but because he saw his educational mission in this. I have already forgiven him all long ago.

In recent years, Andrei lived in a small town in Finland. He went there, at least formally, because he married Finnish. But his personal life was difficult, and I really do not know in what family situation he was recently.

He periodically traveled to Russia and other countries, and sometimes through Tallinn, where I live. He often visited us, stopped for the night. This was always accompanied by interesting conversations.

Tropillo was such an adventurer-visitor, crazy projects were born in his head until the end of his life. In a sense, until the end of his days he remained such an elderly bearded child and was always completely devoted to rock and roll.

The last time Tropillo and I participated in a joint project in August 2019 or 2020. We went to Latvia for the next anniversary of the death of Viktor Tsoi and spoke to the local musical community with stories about him.

Then we went to the very fateful place where the Moskvich Tsoi collided with the bus. And there Tropillo, which for him is very typical, carried out one of his last crazy ideas. The fact is that in this place near the highway ( Tsoi died on August 15, 1990 on the 35th kilometer of the R-126 road, now-P128, Sloka-Talsi in the Tukumsky district of Latvia. -Approx. Ed. ) A small river flows and there is a bridge on which a collision occurred. In this river, Tropillo found a hefty boulder and said that just because of him, Tsoi's car slipped and crashed into the bus. With the help of local guys, he pulled a boulder from the river, put it in a pickupa and took him first to Finland, and then, as far as I know, he transported to Petersburg to turn into something like an altar.