It was the year of 1989 - the end of perestroika and last days of Soviet Union. It’s time for free market, privatization and monetary reform. The majority of people were in a great confusion – temptations of western lifestyle seemed to become reality, at the same time there was big uncertainty about the future. Such circumstances inspired Pavel Zhagun to launch a new musical project. The band was called Moral Codex.
All the musicians who formed the band had already got a large experience by that time. Guitarist and composer Nikolay Devlet-Kildeev (earlier he played in bands ‘Zimniy Sad’, ‘Red Poppies’ and Scandal) became the author of Moral Codex’ music. The first lead singer of the band was Roman Ivasivko – a descendant of Russian emigrants from New York. But the band developed very slowly before Sergey Mazaev joined them. Mazaev had a great experience as a vocalist in popular soviet groups Zdravstvuy pesnya (Hello, song!) and Autograph. He became not only the new lead singer of “Moral Codex” – he also created new concept of the band: they started to perform songs in Russian and their sound moved closer to INXS-style dance-rock.
“We were the first in our country who started to play dancing rock'n'roll, disco disguised under heavy music. And the main principle of our work was always minimalism, rational minimalism.”
The first studio album ‘Sotryasenie Mozga’ (Concussion of the brain) appeared in 1990. Songs “Deti leta” (“Children of summer”) and “Ya tebya lyublyu” (“I love you”) at once became radio hits. And their hit song “Say good bye to mama” was performed on the bridge near the White House on the 22th of August in 1991 – it was the day of victory over putsch – a day when democracy was finally chosen as a path for Russia’s future. Soon after that Konstantin Smirnov (keyboards), who played in late soviet indie-band Nikolaj Kopernik, joined the group.
In 1991 the band played on a rock festival “Independence” in Kiev and took part in a musical contest “Bratislava’s lire”. In 1992 Moral Codex became a laureate of “Step to Parnas” music award. By that time the band finished recording of their new album, called "Moral code-x", which was issued in Switzerland in 1993.
Starting from the mid-nineties the band recorded and released two serious albums: “Gibky Stan” (Supple waist) (1995) and “Ya vybirayu tebya” (I choose you) (1997), that contained hit songs Shukayu tebe (I’m Searching for you), Na Rassvete (Sunrise), Moya mechta – eto ty (“My dream it is you”), “Ya vybirayu tebya” (I choose you) and “Nochnoy kapriz” (“Night caprice”). The music video for the latter was awarded as the best video at “Pokolenie” (“Generation”) festival.
Moral Codex released their next album “Khoroshie novosti” (“Good News”) in 2001. The next year their first collection of hits “The Best” was issued. It containing a brand new song “First Snow” – a radio hit of summer 2002. In 2003 Moral Codex worked in collaboration with a pop group “Diskoteka Avaria”. They released the single “Nebo” (“ The Sky”) and a lyrical video for this song.
In the beginning of 2003 Moral Codex decided to start the recording of their new album in London at the Abbey Road studio with the help of British sound-producer Chris Kimsey, who worked with such world-famous rock stars as The Rolling Stones, INXS, Yes, Ten Years After and many others. The experiment was successful – Moral Codex made two songs for the upcoming album with a different and very aristocratic sound: “V glazah” (“In your eyes”) and “Slavyanskie tantsy” (“Slavic dancing”). “Styles of music change every two years and Moral Codex is an everlasting concept” – said mr. Kimsey in the interview after their work at the studio.
Besides those two tracks this teamwork with Chris Kimsey fueled the idea to make a big concert of Moral Codex with high-quality sound and visual installations in Moscow. The performance took place in summer of 2005 at MKHAT (Moscow Artistic Academic Theatre). The stage-director of the concert was Andrey Boltenko (he worked in one of the greatest Russian movies of the past year “Dnevnoy Dozor” (“Day Watch”) and shot the TV-version of MTV RMA-2006 (Russian Music Awards). The next month Moral Codex played a successful gig at Ronnie Scott’s club in London.
In summer 2006 the DVD of MKHAT concert was released. It also contained a bonus music video for the song “The 9th Company” (a soundtrack for cognominal film about the war in Afganistan shot by Fedor Bondarchuk, which made a sensation in Russia).
“The band doesn’t fill stadiums. Moral Codex, I suppose, is the most non-Russian native group. That’s why they are so popular among those, who grew up, listening to art-rock of Genesis, elegant glamour of Bryan Ferry, naughty music of Duran Duran and crafty sophistication of David Sylvian”. (Russian business magazine “Itogi”)
Moral Codex - New Song Out now!!'s Friend Space (Top 3)
PHILFAN Comments hi my friends ! great songs on line, thank you !! we are very happy to have your reports for our film !! Very impatient too receiving your tap !! ALL THE BEST !!
