Yanka Dyagileva
by brian hefele

First, I feel I should state that all of the Russian in this article has been transliterated from Cyrillic into Latin. This makes everything a lot more accessible, but also makes research more difficult, as transliteration is by no means a precise art and standards aren't always followed. Hopefully the links at the article's end will aid further research.

Yanka Dyagileva's music is like nothing else I've ever heard. Her career was cut short by an apparent suicide; in her years on the scene she produced fewer original tracks than there are days in a month. Like so many great artists, she was not well known in life, and her albums were only given 'official' releases posthumously.

I first discovered Yanka via a dubplate I picked up while hunting through some stacks of wax. I picked it up because the A-side had a Siouxsie and the Banshees track on it. At the time I had no idea what the B was - it was scrawled 'Anka Bedeges,' or some similar misrepresentation of 'Yanka Beregis.' Beregis', the track that introduced me to Dyagileva, remains one of my favorite tracks to this day.

At the time, it was hard to find information on the track or the artist, for a while I only knew that I was surprised to find I liked it vastly more than the Siouxsie track on the obverse of the record. I was eventually able to figure out who the artist was, what the track was, and get some low-quality recordings of Yanka performing live.

Then, in 2008, something wonderful happened. Alina Simone decided to release a fine album composed entirely of covers of Dyagileva tracks. Simone isn't a terribly well-known artist either, but favorable reviews flew across the internet regardlessly. Enough of a buzz was generated, it seems, to have brought about more information regarding Dyagileva herself.

So what's Dyagileva's story? From early on she was interested in and involved with music. Mid-eighties, she meets Aleksandr Bashlachev, another Russian poet and musician whose entire catalog can be extracted from a seemingly infinitesimal timeframe. Bashlachev was a great inspiration to Dyagileva, influencing her life from that point on. Later in the eighties, she meets Yegor Letov of the band Grazhdanskaya Oborona (GrOb), who she fell in love with and attached herself to. She played with GrOb, she played alongside Letov in a new band, Velikie Oktyabri, and she eventually broke out and increasingly performed on her own.

In 1988, Bashlachev died, igniting fresh depression in an already unstable Dyagileva. Letov was, by accounts, easy to set into a rage; Perestroika was no easier on the nation than was the USSR's tendency to arrest underground musicians. May 9, 1991, Dyagileva left her home and never returned. Eight days later, her body was found in the Inya River - the assumption being suicide, but with no formal declaration of such.

How to keep a legacy alive? Even if, like me, you have no knowledge of the Russian language, Dyagileva's music is still touching, beautiful, and sad. Her husky voice carries more emotion than words ever could. Unfortunately, official releases of her work seem impossible to come by, especially in the states. Fortunately, there is a comprehensive website chronicling Dyagileva and her work, linked below. The main page is all in Russian, so I'm also providing a direct link to a directory containing many of Dyagileva's releases. There, you will find a handful of live recordings as well as several good 'studio' recordings.

It's worth taking a moment to talk about the Dyagileva's sound, as well as the Russian punk movement. Dyagileva will be lumped simultaneously into folk as well as punk - both genres seem apt to me. As with most influential genres, punk is more an ideology than a sound, and you shouldn't expect a typical punk sound from Dyagileva. Though clearly influenced by, her sound is much gentler and folk-like than that of, say, GrOb. Even the intensity of GrOb doesn't match the expected punk sound of, say, a Ramones or Flipper fan. Yet the delivery, the torment behind the words, those elements are undeniably punk. A close friend told me he didn't even know there was a Russian punk movement, a point I found very interesting. Unlike movements here in the States, music like Dyagileva's, and like GrOb's had to be underground. Here, you're underground because nobody's paying attention; in the USSR, you were underground because the alternative was detainment. There's an element of secrecy, of loneliness and keeping to one's self. Isolation, not because it's trendy but because it's necessary.

As previously mentioned, Dyagileva only wrote and performed a handful of songs, so the same tracks comprise nearly every release, give or take. Yet they're all solid and powerful, and different renderings of the same tracks reveal different emotions. The albums especially worth listening to would be Ne Polozheno!, a very early release which I've seen credited to Veliki Oktyabrya, yet just to Dyagileva on the official jacket art; Deklassirovannym Ehlementam, a much more polished and produced sounding release; and Prodano!, a pared-down, acoustic release.

As for individual tracks,I'd be hard-pressed to pick a favorite, or even a top three. Yet, I think I can establish a top five -

  • Beregis' / Mne Pridetsya Otpolzat / Beware
  • Pechal' Moja Svetla / Pechal Moya / My Sadness is Luminous
  • Ot Bol'shogo Uma / From Great Knowledge
  • Osobyjj Rezon / Special Reason
  • Deklassirovannym Ehlementam / Deklass Elem
The first title given is a transliteration adhering to GOST. The second Russian title given is an earlier title, found particularly on Ne Polozheno! - these are all found transliterations. The English title is the translated title of the corresponding track on Simone's cover album. Deklassirovannym Ehlementam has a different sound and feel to it than the rest, as it was nearly always performed by both Dyagileva and Letov.

Finally, it's worth mentioning that Simone's cover album, Everyone is Crying Out to Me, Beware (after lines in Beregis') is a fantastic tribute to the late artist. Simone keeps the spirit of Dyagileva alive, mixing in some interesting instrumentation including the addition of horns. The tracks are identifiable and familiar if you become acquainted with Dyagileva's work, sung in the original Russian (albeit with the names translated to English). Simone was obviously inspired and touched by these tracks, and she's perfectly able to evoke the emotions of the original work. This album is readily available on CD or as a legit download, well worth the price.

There will always be great artists who die young, as well as those who live on to talk about the ups and downs of their careers. Dyagileva never got to see her work blossom into what it could have been, nor did she ever see the success in life that she achieved after death. It's worth pondering over the loss of life so young, it's worth mourning a brilliant mind gone. Yet it's worth more to help a legacy live on, to breathe life into the dead, and appreciate art that can impress today as it ever did.

Research & Media:

Yanka Dyagileva

Alina Simone &c.

categories: review, music, culture
date: 2009-11-06 13:49:37
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