Russkij Razmer

The group «Russkij Razmer» (Russian Size. Русский Размер) was formed in 1991. Nowadays it works and tours and it`s contact telephone (812) 9282771.The organizers and the first group members were two friends - Dmitriy Kopotilov and Viktor Bondaryuk. Being occupied in different collectives, merging into one, and finding themselves again in the creative search, they persisted on realizing their dream. Viktor being the student of a construction technical school learned the techniques of playing drums. Dmitriy mastered playing bass guitar at the age of 15 being a school-boy, and later learned to play keyboards.
In 1990 living in Kustanay (north Kazakhstan) D. Kopotilov recorded the phonograms for demonstration of two songs for the new project planned by him. One of them, “Hello America”, soon in 1991 was recorded with a new vocalist at the sound record studio of LenNauchFilm in Saint Petersburg . By this record «Russkij Razmer» opened the diskography. Working at it the duet of voices of Bondaryuk and Kopotilov was created , and it`s sound became easy knowable on any disk of «Russkij Razmer». Then, in a studio LNF they continued to work with other material. During the period of the first steps of group the author of music and texts was D. Kopotilov. The song “UAU” (Ю-А-Ю) appeared which became the visiting-card of group for a long time.

Their first club concerts were given in House of Culture ( named in honour of First Five-year), which is at the present days already blasted for building at this place the new Mariinskiy theater of opera and ballet.

Besides records and club work participants were carry out producer activity on advancement of group. A lot of time was spent searching. The minutes of despair happened. In one of such periods Bondaryuk abandoned «Russkij Razmer» and left to Germany with other musical group.
The membership of the group at that moment was:
• А. Тюрин (A.Turin) - guitar
• Д. Хиль (D.Hil) - key, programming, vocals
• Д. Копотилов (D.Kopotilov) - key, producer
• С. Куницына (S.Kunicina) - vocals
After a while Bondaryuk returned to Petersburg and the musicians of group decided to take him back in the complement of «Russkij Razmer».
In March 1993, in a sporting-concert complex Ubileiniy a large concert took place with the claim name «Russkij Razmer collects friends». Many bright stars of Russian stage took part in that concert: Arkadiy Ukupnik, Alena Apina, Natalia Vetlitskaya, Tat’yana Ovsienko, «Stars» of Natalia Gul’kina, Sergey Chumakov, Lika Star, «Little prince», «Kommisar», «Stella», «Dens of machines», «Fairy» of Svetlana Razina, Vadim Kazachenko, the group «Na-na», Vladimirskaya, Roma Zhukov, Lada Dens, Carolina, a concert conducted Igor Seliverstov. Producer was Sergey Chernikh.
The first replicated album of «Russkij Razmer» was recorded together with Vadim Volodin, a famous Russian sound-arranger and producer. The work was carried out in Moscow. The director was Sergey Chernikh (later - the presenter of a musical television program).
Since 1994 «Russkij Razmer» was a participant of numerous, musical television programs. The video for the song «Batman» (second name: «UAU») (the album «UAU») reached hit places on the top charts (producer Dedenev B., arrangement and sound Vadim Volodin ). Aesthetics of fantasy of the beginning of ХХth century became the basis of the stage image of the group. And stage suits, made in 30th years style, were sewn on Kopotilov`s sketches, who did not hide the infatuation for this genre in his modern embodiment. This suits were used on the cover of the first album «UAU», during the record of the clip with the same name and on the concerts of the group.
The concerts of touring in Russia world stars («Army of Lovers», Haddaway, La Toya Jackson…) began the group «Russkij Razmer».
In 1995 the album “Davay-Davay” (Go-Go. Давай-Давай) of humorous versions of the hits of the Russian stage appeared, in collaboration with Professor Lebedinskiy.
Great success had this joint project in Russia.
At the same time the album “Meow” (Мяу) was released on label Electric Records with tracks recorded between the events of the club life.
A young radio-DJ Dmitry Nagiev (now a popular TV showman, theatre and cinema actor) actively promoted the group’s new compositions in a creative unity.
In 1995 the group’s female vocalist Angela left the group for her solo career.
In 1997 a master-choreographer Yulia Koshelyova from Novosibirsk joined the group. The song «Suburban blues» of famous Russian musician Mike Naumenko (Zoo) was recorded in collaboration with a group Chihz and Co., (Siskin and Co… Чиж и К…) for participating in a televiion battle the «Musical Ring” and for their joint tour. In the same time the album «Are we dance?» reached America and Europe ( for a note: the internet at that time was in the rudimentary state. Albums to America were delivered by airplanes ). From that moment «Russkij Razmer» actively gave world tours (in the period of 1997-2009 the group performed in America, Canada, Europe and Asia ).
The Song «Angel of the Day» (Ангел дня) and the video (dir. by A. Igudin and [A. Tikhonov] again brought the group to the high places in top-charts.
Since 1999 the voice of Eleonora could be heard from the scene and albums. Alexander Borisov, the sound engineer, constantly workes with the group.
«Russkij Razmer» with the group «E-Type» toured Russia with great success. Joint songs were recorded with some Russian stars. The albums «OUT» (featuring Rodion Chistyakov, the famous club musician in Saint Petersburg), «Ascending airflows» (V.V.P… Восходящие Воздушные Потоки) were issued.
The clips recorded at that time were : «Here is so» (Vot tak. Вот так) (Soloha A.), «Love» (Lubov’, Любовь), «Energy De Lus» (Энергия света), «Normal evening» (Нормальный вечер) (Igudin A.), “I am” (Я), «It was and passed» (Было и прошло) (Fly studio), «All that world» (Весь этот мир) (RRvideoMake), “I true party” (Меня колбасит) (F.Bondarchuk`s studio), «That is all» (Vot i vce. Вот и все) (Vedernikov A.)
In the Ice Palace in Saint Petersburg a large concert took place in spring 2004 with many stars of the modern Russian stage. This show was devoted to the 13th anniversary of the group «Russkij Razmer».
In the beginning of 2005 a new member, Igor Lutsenko, appeared in the collective instead of Viktor Bondaryuk, who had left the group. The foreign tours of «Russkij Razmer» are not limited only with the shores of America. The group is known and welcomed in many European countries- Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, in Germany and Italy, including United Kingdom and Israel.
The group «Russkij Razmer» tours and continues to create new albums. In the album of 2009 year are 14 songs, ten of them are original and four are remakes.
Some pieces of that songs can be heard on www.lastfm.ru, teg: label Russkij Razmer
on the official site www.russki-razmer.spb.ru
and vkontakte http://vkontakte.ru/club734130
.
This site www.russki-razmer.spb.ru existed from 1998.
Russkiy Razmer is the registered trademark!

The current membership of the group is:
• Дмитрий Копотилов (Dmitriy Kopotilov) - music, lyrics, vocals
• Игорь Луценко (Igor’ Lutsenko) - music, lyrics, vocals
• Элеонора Филимонова (Eleonora Filimonova) - vocals
• Александр Борисов (Alexander Borisov) - sound engineer
• Ирина Ястребова (Irina Yastrebova) - director contact telephone (812) 9282771
localizer@mail.ru

(2009)