Igor OGOGO

From III Records igOr OGOGO Throughout his musical journey, Igor's output has proven adventures and contradictional, both a natural product of Russia and a planetary act. His work output is a living complex of modern tendencies, comprehensible in all cultures. The son of a Russian father and mother, Igor was born in the city of Moscow. He studied piano from the age of six and started to pick up guitar as a teenager. These were the seeds. And the soil, of course, is his homeland of Russia.

igOr OGOGO

Throughout his musical journey, Igor's output has proven adventures and contradictional, both a natural
product of Russia and a planetary act. His work output is a living complex of modern tendencies, comprehensible in all cultures.

The son of a Russian father and mother, Igor was born in the city of Moscow. He studied piano from the age of six and started to pick up guitar as a teenager. These were the seeds. And the soil, of course, is his homeland of Russia. A composer by training, Igor studied guitar with the famed teacher Michael Esacoff in Moscow, and it was at his insisting to investigate jazz legacy that Igor's explorations began in intensely serious form. He digged deep into the culture of Be-Bop, the Cool school, and spent time with various Avant-Garde systems, all the while working on a characteristic voice as a guitar player.

Approximately, at that time Igor organized two improvised formations : Roof and Asphalt, representing free-style experimental music and rock avant-garde respectively. Music of this groups documented on different labels in Russia, Germany, and Great Britain.

Such diversities feeding Igor's music are very much accounted for on Ira & Igor, his 6th project for III Records and, by his account, the 23rd album he is recorded over the quarter of the century since the Esacoff incident. Wildedged passages, full of Igor's percussive phrases and extended guitar techniques, and sensuous melodic writings coexist naturally. Impressionistic sections and improvised parts seamlessly blended together with intricately detailed passages, full of evolving contrapuntal writings performed by Igor and longtime colleague Ira Schulman. Importantly, the borders between classical music, jazz idiom, folklore, and countless forms of creativity are graciously brought down. Certainly and unmistakably, this is Igor music. He deeps onto resources at once earthy and spherical, bringing those conditions into spotlight and sorting up issues, cultural clashes and prejudices. Most of all, his music is not so much a feed for purists complaint or stylistic controversy as it is a hypersensitive and living organism, a body of works that keeps to expand and evolve.

Igor's fruitful association with III Records began in 90's of the last
century, when he recorded the acclaimed Splash Strings on Me, with fellow Japanese singer Kyoto Wajima. Subsequent projects brought Igor into collaborations with Drea Courtney and Rod Oakes. On the verge of the centuries, he released OGOGO Live, with group OGOGO, and a solo album The Land Of Cumber: reflections of the artist from two separate angles. In the beginning of the XXI century, Ira & Igor documented the natural evolution of the group OGOGO, which for this reincarnation features duets of Ira Schulman on flutes, tenor sax and clarinet and Igor on guitars.

Also Igor contributed to all tracks on Rod Oakes album Rod Plays Oakes Plays Rod.

Next is a remarkable twist. Igor is recording album of highly unusual music. Music that is colorfully visual and at the same time is very emotional, up to threshold of pain. Album's title is Solo View and it's recorded in Los Angeles, London and Moscow.

Igor composed OGOGO/Linden album during the two year period in 2007-2008, his work of musical impressions of far-reaching Avant-Garde paintings, featuring a collection of fourteen compositions reflecting the renowned paintings of Ron Linden. Igor set himself the task of writing compositions incorporating experimental styles with his already extensive musical palette. The titles of all the OGOGO/Linden album compositions are derived from the titles of the original paintings of Linden.

Over the last twenty-five years, the music of Igor has brought us, with its unique cultural legacy, an uncommon depth.