Vyacheslav Butusov confirmed his “gypsy roots” by changing his image

The memory of the Nautilus is so unsinkable that the anniversary concerts of the collective, as if existing in some kind of parallel reality, were held in both capitals with a full house. This time they did not gather the old line-up together, Butusov played the classics of Russian rock with young musicians from his new and current group, Order of Glory.

The frontman warned in advance that there would be neither invited guests nor a reunion of the golden line-up at the anniversary. This is either very troublesome, or it is no longer possible for various legitimate life reasons. But this does not mean that everyone who was “before” and “thanks to whom” was forgotten at the concert – their faces will definitely appear at the end on the big screen. One could also expect the songs of “Nau” to be dressed in the luxurious decoration of a symphony orchestra on such a grandiose occasion. But lately, 61-year-old Butusov has been increasingly striving for conciseness, and in a recent interview he noted that he is not a supporter of mixing rock and symphonic music.

On a Saturday evening in Moscow, people of all ages gathered at the large concert hall on the Moscow Ring Road, languidly fighting off street dealers with live horses, offering to take pictures with animals as a keepsake. In the foyer, fans were greeted by a cardboard mock-up of a smiling Butusov, with which one could take a selfie absolutely free of charge, standing in a 30-meter line of those who wanted to, mostly women. Since the 80s, the brutal soloist of the Sverdlovsk “Nau” has been a real sex symbol of the golden rock era. On the stage, Vyacheslav appeared in his new image for a while – with a small gray beard. The women, who had just been photographed with a more familiar beardless copy, whispered that they had once heard about Butusov’s gypsy roots – now they became obvious. Another miracle was also associated with this: back in the 80s, there were rumors in Sverdlovsk that the singing of a rock hero had a therapeutic effect precisely because of these gypsy bloodlines …

The musicians sat down on the stage, music began to sound, and no one paid any attention to the new appearance of the performer: the stalls listened with trepidation to every long-familiar note, the gallery sang out loud.

Two parts without intermission. We started with soft acoustics, with which everything began, and in the work of the group, as Vyacheslav explained, they could not immediately afford to play electric guitars. In this part, “Sisters of Sorrow”, “Poor Bird”, “Flying Frigate” (performed for the first time on stage), “Hawk’s Wedding” and other songs rare at concerts were performed. This quiet and touching block ended with the hits “We will live with you in a small hut” and “Walks on the water”. Once again, fascinated by the conversation of the Apostle Andrew with the Savior, the listeners picked up their phones with their flashlights on, and the hall turned into a starry sky.

While the technicians were changing the equipment, Vyacheslav communicated with the people. In a brief historical digression into the history of music, he said that acoustic instruments were invented because a person tried to imitate nature, and electric ones – when he wanted to display the sound of the elements in order to “tickle your nerves.” “Now we will play the electric part for you to tickle your nerves,” the musician told the audience, and later added: “I have never talked so much at concerts …”

Electricity surprised with rare songs: “Mongolian Steppe”, “Demons”, “Foreign Land” – and exposed the special teamwork of the musicians of the “Order of Glory”. According to Butusov’s close circle, over the five years of the existence of this team, he managed to turn from Vyacheslav’s support group into a powerful creative team with a nourishing friendly atmosphere. This atmosphere and teamwork acted on the listener as an indirect massage of the heart, capable of raising consciousness to the harmony of higher spheres to the accompaniment of bizarre images of crosses, mandalas and all kinds of symbols and signs flashing against a digital background.

Armor-piercing hits “Lonely Bird”, “View from the Screen”, “Diamond Roads” followed – Butusov dedicated them to all the musicians of the Nautilus Pompilius group. Not without the expected “Wings”, “Breath”, “I want to be with you” in the final. The main part ended with a logical point – “Farewell Letter”. On the big screen, Vyacheslav is against the current on a paper boat, and the figures of Nau’s friends and musicians from the past flew past him, including the poet Ilya Kormiltsev, who wrote a significant part of the group’s texts.

The audience jumped up from their seats and did not let the musicians go for a long time, demanding an encore. As a result, the musicians left and returned two more times, performing five more songs, so the cult action movie “Bound in One Chain” became the last in the program. A bright red light from a huge screen flooded the hall, a lot of gears and research microscopes appeared on the screen, and then, one after another, bowed figures of people with Quar codes instead of heads stretched out in a mournful procession – a powerful image of the social order that rotted at the end with its mutual responsibility. Thanks to the new visual accents (with the same qar codes), it became obvious that now “Bound” is more relevant than ever, although even without the qar codes, the song’s poignant relevance is obvious. 30 years ago they opened concerts with it to put the audience on the ears from the very beginning, and now they close it, apparently so that the audience disperses, immersed in thought …

When everything calmed down, ZD met in the lobby with Alexander Korotich, a well-known artist who in different years created visual design for Vyacheslav Butusov’s projects and continues to actively collaborate with him. Thanks to Alexander, the author of this article even took an active part in creating the visuals of the concert. A few years ago, as a director and cameraman, I created a video for the track “View from the Screen”. According to a very vague plot in this video, a young girl wanders around the city with a cardboard figure of Alain Delon and, together with her paper lover, gets into various adventures. Then this clip was not included in the concert video content, but while working on the anniversary program this year, it was remembered, and it was decided to accompany the all-time hit “Alain Delon” with this video. So the ZD columnist had a hand in the work of the team and entered the brilliant history of the group. Now bursting with pride and happiness. Alexander shared how the work on the design of the program went:

– For the last anniversary, we made a video sequence based on old engravings, which I cut in large quantities and made semantic collages. The work turned out to be interesting, but it was something looking back, into the past, some retro. This time I wanted the video sequence to look fresh, relevant and for the new generation. In addition, I was always worried about the excessive plot of the clips, the cinematic approach, when a cartoon appears on the screen, which becomes more important and more interesting than the song. I think this is wrong. When in the summer we agreed that we need to completely update the entire video sequence, it turned out that 30 video clips should go under the replacement. Together with the animators, I had to make one clip in three days … Some songs did not have clips yet, mostly new ones in its acoustic part. We decided that these would not be story videos with a spatial or natural background – foliage, rivers, clouds, and so on. They will create the mood of the song, and the meaning will be emphasized by line graphics with a set of symbols that will help decipher the song, and somewhere else, they will make the background more mysterious.

– In the end, this gave the whole program integrity …

– In fact, at this reception, the style of the video sequence was developed. As a result, we got a live stage wallpaper that does not look like either a movie or a video clip, which sets off the song, which is exactly what I wanted. The only exception is our idea for the song “View from the Screen”. We had three or four attempts to make a video for this song, and they all turned out to be unsuccessful, Vyacheslav and we did not like what happened. Then I remembered about our work with you, and it turned out that now she can enter the program. Vyacheslav wrote to me in a letter that, in his opinion, this is a very touching video that fits our concept well.

– As far as I remember, the very idea of ​​making cardboard Alain Delon was proposed by you initially. Then it took me some time to find a suitable photo of the artist in good quality, I remember how we solemnly took him away from production … By the way, he still “lives” in my stairwell: I don’t raise my hand to dispose of such beauty.

– This is perhaps the only story movie that fits well in the whole story. The reaction of the audience showed that the public also received it very well.

– By the way, about the graphics: Vyacheslav Butusov is an architect, the graphics really resonate with his image as a whole.

– In St. Petersburg, Nastya Poleva, who was at the concert, highly praised me. Since she is an architect by education, she appreciated our work as a professional.

– Not surprising. Pulsating graphics, which turns into an interface, then into crosses, then into some kind of mandalas and yantras, as if connecting the past of the group and its future in the present moment.

– All the songs that sounded from the stage continue to be relevant, and I wanted the videos to contain this relevance and freshness, so that young people would also be interested in watching and listening. I was very glad that there were completely different people in the hall by age, and the youth perceived what was happening very well …

It remains to be added that thanks to new technologies in the design of both sound and video, the Nautilus ship not only does not age, but vice versa – it becomes more and more like a multi-story space liner, directed towards the future, and its holds, as before, are filled with meanings and riddles.