Alexander Yakovlev was anything but happy as Leonid Velichovskiy, leaving the group also brought Andrey Kokhayev along, although he later, according to unspecified sources was said to have accepted it all by the words “It was for everyone’s best. Everyone has to do his job.” but disregarding requests of confirming this statement, to this day it still remains unclear whether there at all should be any reason to assume these words were ever uttered.
Regardless of the circumstances concerning that, Yakovlev still had the will to continue spreading his message, and the vision expanded with new inspiration.
After having attended a lecture about UFO:s, Yakovlev’s curiosity and interest increased concerning the subjects of science fiction, the universe and the cosmic mysteries, which naturally lead to the logical next step after Biokonstruktor’s relatively down-to-earth perspective.
Yet in synch with Andrey Bondarenko, still fulfilling his task as a lyrics writer, Yakovlev soon enough
found new colleagues in comrades Oleg Podkoverov and Leonid Dmitrotjenko. The constellation went under the name BIO and with the new line-up the sound changed. The previously melancholic melodies were replaced with more energetic, and in particular more danceable songs which to a higher degree related to the contemporary synth pop then any previous Biokonstruktor material.
The year was 1990 and parallel to Yakovlev’s advance, Velichovskiy was arming his forces; the new project called Tekhnologiya, for which he also recruited the young Roman Ryabcev. Having spent 1990 recording demo tracks, Tekhnologiya released their first album Vse Chto Ty Khotesh (All that yo want) the nextfollowing year. With their easily accessible sound and increasing common denominators with Depeche Mode, Tekhnologiya eventually gained more publicity and bigger popularity than Biokonstruktor ever did during their short carreer, in spite of many changes, a frequent change of band members and a split up. In 1992, Velichovskiy abandoned the group in favour for starting a carreer as a pop producer, and was replaced by another old member of Biokonstruktor: Valery Vasko. Yet, no longer time span came to pass before Roman Ryabcev announced his departure after having signed a contract with Radio France Internationale, and a few months after that also Andrey Kokhayev left the group and thus Tekhnologiya were disbanded. 10 years later they would reform with in a new version but that’s a different story.
Already previous to the split-up of Tekhnologiya, the old colleagues Alexander Yakovlev and Valery Vasko had begun a new co-operation, so whilst the latter were on stage with Tekhnologiya, he was already a member of BIO. Vasko replaced the at the time newly dropped out Oleg Podkoverov and new to the group was also Anatoliy Popov (replacing Leonid Dmitrochenko).
Let’s step back in time for a brief moment: In 1991 BIO signed a contract with the
label Gala Records and through this released their first album Muzika Stoikikh Dvizheniya (Music in Movement). The life span of this contract did however show to be short, but in 1993 the album was re-released under the title Tekhnoromantika, through ZeKo Records, in its time one of the leading labels of Soviet/Russian music industry. They also released a 14 track compilation, Elektronaya Lirika (Electronic Poetry), consisting of Yakovlev-singles from 1989-1993 before Valery Vasko once again disappeared in the periphery. In his place entered Olga Voskonyan who apart from playing keyboards also contributed with some backing vocals, and thus was the group once again a trio, till 1994 when Anatoliy Popov some time after the release of Muzika Stoikikh Dvizheniya left BIO. Muzika Stoikikh Dvizheniya is still to this day the last official full length album by BIO.
Concerning musical matters, BIO would henceforth lay relatively low, which can’t be regarded as anything strange, considering all the other ways in which the Yakovlevian activity was expressed: Already in the beginning of the 90’s he became a VJ for a small music show broadcasted by the Russian TVC, which often involved electronic music, not least nostalgic journes back to the days of Biokonstruktor. At the same time he wrote article about the local (Moscow) synth scene for various magazines and later on, he also came to host synth music related radio shows at, among others, Radio Russia. In 1995 Yakovlev also founded Electric Records, a sub label to Studyia Soyuz, which he still runs.
In 1996, things drastically change and as a result of too demanding work, all Bio-activity decrease to close to null.
Nine years later, Alexander Yakovlev however picked up his merely sleeping project as he alone performed at the Maiskiy Grom (May Thunder) festival, performing his old songs. Ever since then, BIO has been very much alive. Now the group is a duo consisting of Yakovlev and Alexey Pavlov. Pavlov is the man and brain behind the space synth project Pavlov & Computers, and Yakovlev…he does what he’s always been doing and with the same enthusiasm as before, no matter whether it’s about music, dreams or spreading his message.
The story hasn’t yet came to an end, but concerning what will happen next only the future can tell.
Regardless of the circumstances concerning that, Yakovlev still had the will to continue spreading his message, and the vision expanded with new inspiration.
After having attended a lecture about UFO:s, Yakovlev’s curiosity and interest increased concerning the subjects of science fiction, the universe and the cosmic mysteries, which naturally lead to the logical next step after Biokonstruktor’s relatively down-to-earth perspective.
Yet in synch with Andrey Bondarenko, still fulfilling his task as a lyrics writer, Yakovlev soon enough
found new colleagues in comrades Oleg Podkoverov and Leonid Dmitrotjenko. The constellation went under the name BIO and with the new line-up the sound changed. The previously melancholic melodies were replaced with more energetic, and in particular more danceable songs which to a higher degree related to the contemporary synth pop then any previous Biokonstruktor material.
The year was 1990 and parallel to Yakovlev’s advance, Velichovskiy was arming his forces; the new project called Tekhnologiya, for which he also recruited the young Roman Ryabcev. Having spent 1990 recording demo tracks, Tekhnologiya released their first album Vse Chto Ty Khotesh (All that yo want) the nextfollowing year. With their easily accessible sound and increasing common denominators with Depeche Mode, Tekhnologiya eventually gained more publicity and bigger popularity than Biokonstruktor ever did during their short carreer, in spite of many changes, a frequent change of band members and a split up. In 1992, Velichovskiy abandoned the group in favour for starting a carreer as a pop producer, and was replaced by another old member of Biokonstruktor: Valery Vasko. Yet, no longer time span came to pass before Roman Ryabcev announced his departure after having signed a contract with Radio France Internationale, and a few months after that also Andrey Kokhayev left the group and thus Tekhnologiya were disbanded. 10 years later they would reform with in a new version but that’s a different story.Already previous to the split-up of Tekhnologiya, the old colleagues Alexander Yakovlev and Valery Vasko had begun a new co-operation, so whilst the latter were on stage with Tekhnologiya, he was already a member of BIO. Vasko replaced the at the time newly dropped out Oleg Podkoverov and new to the group was also Anatoliy Popov (replacing Leonid Dmitrochenko).
Let’s step back in time for a brief moment: In 1991 BIO signed a contract with the
label Gala Records and through this released their first album Muzika Stoikikh Dvizheniya (Music in Movement). The life span of this contract did however show to be short, but in 1993 the album was re-released under the title Tekhnoromantika, through ZeKo Records, in its time one of the leading labels of Soviet/Russian music industry. They also released a 14 track compilation, Elektronaya Lirika (Electronic Poetry), consisting of Yakovlev-singles from 1989-1993 before Valery Vasko once again disappeared in the periphery. In his place entered Olga Voskonyan who apart from playing keyboards also contributed with some backing vocals, and thus was the group once again a trio, till 1994 when Anatoliy Popov some time after the release of Muzika Stoikikh Dvizheniya left BIO. Muzika Stoikikh Dvizheniya is still to this day the last official full length album by BIO.Concerning musical matters, BIO would henceforth lay relatively low, which can’t be regarded as anything strange, considering all the other ways in which the Yakovlevian activity was expressed: Already in the beginning of the 90’s he became a VJ for a small music show broadcasted by the Russian TVC, which often involved electronic music, not least nostalgic journes back to the days of Biokonstruktor. At the same time he wrote article about the local (Moscow) synth scene for various magazines and later on, he also came to host synth music related radio shows at, among others, Radio Russia. In 1995 Yakovlev also founded Electric Records, a sub label to Studyia Soyuz, which he still runs.
In 1996, things drastically change and as a result of too demanding work, all Bio-activity decrease to close to null.
Nine years later, Alexander Yakovlev however picked up his merely sleeping project as he alone performed at the Maiskiy Grom (May Thunder) festival, performing his old songs. Ever since then, BIO has been very much alive. Now the group is a duo consisting of Yakovlev and Alexey Pavlov. Pavlov is the man and brain behind the space synth project Pavlov & Computers, and Yakovlev…he does what he’s always been doing and with the same enthusiasm as before, no matter whether it’s about music, dreams or spreading his message.
The story hasn’t yet came to an end, but concerning what will happen next only the future can tell.
Photos used top left to bottom right:
- A. Yakovlev with Biokonstruktor
- Alexander Yakovlev and Oleg Podkoverov
- Tecknologiya
- BIO: Valery Vasko, Alerxander Yakovlev, Anatoliy Popov
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