Pugacheva was the last to learn about the new album: the Diva has never had anything like this before

How is that?! From time immemorial, the laws of show business have taught that musicians, and especially their producers, make a complete doomsday out of any event, not to mention something as epic as the release of a new album. This is a milestone on the way. Like a book by a writer, a painting by an artist, a film or play by a director, etc. In addition to the uniqueness of the content itself, which, of course, will be discussed further, the PS album will thus go down in the history of releases under the name ABP as also being released without the knowledge of the beneficiary. Before, of course, there were dozens of bootlegs published in the country and around the world, but here the hand was not of a pirate, but of one of the people closest to the stellar body – sound producer Anatoly Lopatin.

Lopatin was absolutely haunted by the thought that the priceless legacy of the anniversary concert PostScriptum, revealed to the world on the occasion of the Artist’s anniversary only twice (April 17, 2019 in Moscow and November 2, 2019 in Minsk), would never remain in the annals of music history as a separate release. There was, of course, a full-length film “That Concert”, shown in cinemas and on TV, but this could not replace the magic of a full-length album with a completely unique recording. The cliques, of course, reflecting on the news, reduced everything solely to the calculation of greed – they say, they still can’t earn it. But the bossy, and therefore indisputable (or is someone against it?) proverb is known: “Whoever calls you what you call him is called that.” So we ate it, wiped away the crumbs…

“There is a fundamental difference with this recording; Pugacheva has never had anything like this before,” Mr. Lopatin explains the uniqueness of the publication. “She sang this album in its entirety at the concert, and Alla did not have such purely concert albums.”

Live albums occupy a special place in the work of musicians and performers; in world practice, they are often even labeled in a separate niche, separated in the official discography from ordinary studio albums. At the same time, as a rule, tracks released in concert versions also have an “official” studio version. With Pugacheva, everything happened differently.

“There are simply no studio versions of new songs performed at the concert,” explains Lopatin, “and for some reason Alla’s fans constantly demand them from me. I explain to them all: “Guys, there are no studio versions of new songs.” Yes, it’s great that all versions are concert, live. Why else make any studio recordings?!” — the experienced sound producer is confident. So “Anesthesia”, “Live in My Skin”, “Free”, “Nightingale”, “Dew Fell on the Earth” and half a dozen more songs will remain in history only as a concert recording of, fortunately, excellent quality.

At the same time, Anatoly Lopatin notes that for many years he had previously been exclusively engaged in studio work with Pugacheva, and this was his first experience of recording a live concert. I was worried, nervous, worried, but Pugacheva was adamant and did not even want to discuss other candidates. “Well, you can do it, come on!” — she admonished me without much hesitation. And Lopatin gave it – there was nowhere to go. Now he remembers:

— As a sound engineer at a live concert, I worked with her for the first time, and she not only surprised, but shocked. During rehearsals, I honed the sound, just as in the studio, and asked to adjust the microphone, for example, so that I could not only sing, but also whisper, so that everything would be soft and beautiful. And when the concert began, the whole team went wild: she began to sing live so actively from the first song – by 10-12 decibels, which is four to five times louder and more intense than it was at rehearsals. Everyone was shocked, and I had to change all the settings during the concert. She gave such jazz, live, concert, real drive that the technical team was completely unprepared for it. But the recording now has all this real rock style and atmosphere, which is almost impossible to achieve in the studio… Studio performance is static, this is a completely different aesthetic, so I also gained a lot of experience in this sense. And I am very grateful to Alla for her trust.

At the same time, the sound producer regrets that there was not another concert recording – in Minsk, the only city besides Moscow where Pugacheva repeated the performance six months later. Despite all the drive of the Kremlin concert, “a real and complete break,” according to Lopatin, happened in Minsk.

“I was literally stifled by the toad that the concert in Minsk was not being written, it would have cost a lot,” Anatoly recalls his feelings. — There was a complete blast there in the best traditions of her stadium concerts, real rock and roll! Completely different energy and aesthetics: before this there was a dead Kremlin, a half-criminal audience in velvet chairs, which came with the feeling of kings who bought expensive tickets, the atmosphere there is always very heavy because of this. And in Minsk there is a stadium arena, only fans, they shouted, sang, Alla went to the hall, and it was all with such drive and in one breath. It was amazing!

“ZD”, in fact, confirms the words and emotions of Mr. Lopatin, since she herself was a witness and chronicler of both events. Minsk with Pugacheva really stood out in 2019, which was completely at odds with the sedate anniversary status of the event and was radically different from the Kremlin’s presentation in Moscow.

Returning to the features of the PostScriptum album, it is necessary to note the “old” songs that Pugacheva performed at the concert in new arrangements. There were nine of them, including “Holy Lie”, “Star”, “The Candle Burned”, “The Woman Who Sings”, etc. Thanks to the “single” performance, “documented” in the recording, they also became a unique musical artifact and a kind of premiere -remakes.

Meanwhile, Alla Pugacheva herself, admitting that the “unexpected” album PostScriptum from the last anniversary for her became a “good gift” for the upcoming anniversary, promised to give new songs herself. He says: “Wait, my dear fans. Only for your sake!” For the holiday of yellow flowers on the first Sunday of spring, the first news was already sent with the song “Don’t Worry About Me,” causing a storm of discussions, which “MK” also reported.

Fans, for their part, presented yellow flowers to passers-by on the city streets last Sunday; the happiness of the discouraged passers-by knew no bounds, especially when the bouquets were presented by the artist Natalya Budnitskaya in the image of “The Woman Who Sings.” Some people remained convinced that the real Pugacheva was wandering along the Boulevards in Moscow with flowers. Kristina Orbakaite, meanwhile, ended the holiday with a long-awaited concert in St. Petersburg, so the day of the Pugachev spring turned out to be unusually eventful and meaningful.

We are waiting for the continuation of anniversary surprises…