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(E-E) Evgenij Kozlov: ART>> Leningrad 80s • No.109 >>
(Е-Е) ЕВГЕНИЙ КОЗЛОВ • (E-E) EVGENIJ KOZLOV
Oбложкa альбома группы КИНО (1984) |
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AnTrop‘s 1984 Release and Moroz Records’ Plagiarism 1994-2012, |
| Exhibition Samizdat. The Music That wasn't There. KGallery, 2023 |
Hannelore Fobo, April 2022
 AnTrop 1984 and Moroz Records’s Plagiarism 1994-2012, by Hannelore Fobo
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The website of Discogs.com lists thirty-one editions – reel-to-reel albums, cassettes, CDs, and LPs – of KINO's album Начальник КАМЧАТКИ / Nachalnik Kamchatki (The Chief of Kamchatka) for the period from 1984, when it was first released, up to December 2021 external link>>. The overwhelming majority of CDs, cassettes and LPs was produced by Moroz Records, a Moscow based label which owned the licence on KINO's music between the beginning of the 1990s and early 2018. The first and the last releases of the album, in 1984 and 2021, however, were by Andrey Tropillo, who had recorded the songs at his semi-legal Leningrad studio in 1984 under the label AnTrop.
All album covers were related, in one way or another, to (E-E) Evgenij Kozlov's original Nachalnik Kamchatki design of an LP cover, a beautfully painted two-sided photo-collage from 1984 with a picture of Yury Kasparan, Alexander Titov, Viktor Tsoy, and Georgy Guryanov, KINO’s core members at that time. E-E Kozlov selected this group portrait, to which he added a distant mountain as background, from approximately one hundred pictures he took fo create the cover design. The picture shows the four musicians in synchronised, dynamic movements, framed by a complex geometrical arrangement dominated by the diagonal lettering of the title of the album and the name of the band. The original draught for the KINO lettering sitll exists in Kozlov's archive. The artist’s detailed description of the compostion is available in Russian more>>.
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(E-E) Evgenij Kozlov: КИНО Начальник КАМЧАТКИ / KINO Nachalnik Kamchatki
Outer sleeve for an LP, mixed media on cardboard, front, ca. 31 x 31 cm, 1984 From left to right: Yury Kasparan, Alexander Titov, Viktor Tsoy, Georgy Guryanov. Copyright note inserted into the digital picture  (E-E) Evgenij Kozlov: Кино «Начальник КАМЧАТКИ» / KINO "Nachalnik Kamchatki" Outer sleeve for an LP, mixed media on cardboard, back, ca. 31 x 31 cm, 1984 Copyright note inserted into the digital picture
With the 1984 AnTrop release, (E-E) Evgenij Kozlov's original Nachalnik Kamchatki LP cover design first appeared in an extremely simplfied version, as black-and-white photographic reproduction. It took another thirty-seven years before this work could be fully appreciated in a digitally restaured version for AnTrop‘s double album from December 2021 see introduction>>. Moroz Records‘ main releases took place in 1994, 1996, and 2012, the other ones being variations or re-editions of these three. All cover designs were strongly influenced by E-E Kozlov‘s original cover. Actually, speaking of "influence" isn't quite correct. "Plagiarism" seems to be a more adequate term – "plagiarism“ with a strong sense of "bad copying", simplyfying or even distorting the original idea. As a matter of fact, Moroz Records never tried to contact the artist to discuss the lay-out with him. The company just exploited E-E Kozlov's concept, thus avoiding paying him royalties.
1984 AnTrop, reel-to-reel For Leningrad underground bands like KINO, Andrey Tropillo's semi-legal studio was probably the best place to record their albums, which were then copied on reel-to-reel tape desks and distributed as magnitizdat (or reel-to-reel) albums.
Private apartment in Leningrad equipped for copying records to tapes. Kozlov took this picture
Boris Grebenshikov, leader of the band Aquarium, and already established as a singer-songwriter by the time KINO had their first gigs at the Leningrad Rock-Club, helped the band to record their songs at Tropillo's studio more about Aquarium's magnitizdat albums>>.
Andrey Tropillo (right) and Boris Grebenshikov in Tropillo‘s studio during a recording with Aquarium.
One of the early KINO albums was Начальник Камчатки (Nachalnik Kamchatki / The Chief of Kamchatki) from 1984. The history of the original album cover is quite interesting. Although “Nachalnik Kamchatki” was, of course, released as a magnitizdat or reel-to-reel album, artist (E-E) Evgenij Kozlov created a vinyl record cover for it, a collage with his own picture from a photo shoot he had arranged with Kino members for this specific purpose. Later, to celebrate the release of the magnitizdat album, he organised a performance with a “fake” vinyl record inside the real cover.
Cover designs of magnitizdat boxes were typically created with photographic prints from black-and-white negatives. The 1984 magnitizdat box for the Nachalnik Kamchatki tape went with two different designs. One had a portrait of Tsoy on the cover and, on the reverse, a boy playing a Casio VL-Tone keyboard – an instrument actually used for the recording – completed by a list of songs.
The other design used Kozlov's cover, more precisely, black-and-white reproductions of both sides displaying extremely sharp light-dark contrasts. Like in the first example, there is no no line-up of musicians, and the name of the artist is not inlcuded either, but the reverse is provided with AnTrop's label, which became an official label only in 1991.
with black and white reproductions of E-E Kozlov's original album cover, front and reverse Andrey Tropillo's label AnTrop is on the reverse, top right. The Sergey Chubraev Collection |
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(E-E) Evgenij Kozlov's original album sleeve remained with Georgy Guryanov, a great admirer of Kozlov's works and portraits. Using one of Kozlov's pictures from the 1984 photo shoot, Guryanov repainted the musician's facial features, which made them look like caricatures of themselves. Moroz Records used this picture for a 1994 CD and cassette release, for which the company also copied E-E Kozlov's geometrical design, perhaps adapted from the original sleeve. On the other hand, given the fact that the CD layout misses important details of the collage, it might be an interpretation of the black-and white-reproduction from the magnitizdat box. Another possible source is Joanna Stingray's photograph of Viktor Tsoy holding Kozlov LP cover, which Moroz Records used after 1996 (see below). Later Guryanov admitted to E-E Kozlov that he very much regretted having chosen his own work instead of E-E‘s for this production.
KINO, Nachalnik Kamchatki, CD, Moroz records, 1994
New print from 2000 of (E-E) Evgenij Kozlov‘s picture from 1984
KINO, Nachalnik Kamchatki, CD, Moroz records, 1994 KINO, Nachalnik Kamchatki, CD, Moroz records, 1994 |
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Starting in 1996, Moroz Records released the album again a number of times on cassette and CD, now using Joanna Stingray‘s picture of Viktor Tsoy holding (E-E) Evgenij Kozlov‘s album sleeve; the picture is from the mid-1980s. Successive releases show the cover design with slight variations regarding sales and distribution, but up to 2012, it basically remained the same. |
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 CD cover of KINO Nachalnik Kamchatki front, offset print on paper,12.5 x 14.3 cm Moroz records, 1998 The note insidе thе blue corner restricts sales to Russia and CIS (СНГ) The Kozlov & Fobo Collection, Berlin
Comparing the CD cover with Stingray’s picture, it can be clearly seen that the picture’s overexposed section with the Nachalnik Kamchatki sleeve has been re-designed for the CD cover to get it closer to E-E Kozlov's original work. The reverse of the CD box has a reproduction of Timur Novikov's portrait of Viktor Tsoy from the 1980s, while the reverse of the booklet takes up the main features of E-E Kozlov's original back cover – the inverted silhouettes of the musicians framed by a "window" – but without the song titles. In all likelihood, two sources inspired these features. One of the sources is the reproduction of Kozlov’s sleeve on the 1984 magnitizdat album, as demonstrated by a blue application covering the place where Tropillo's label is in the magnitizdat album. The other source is Kozlov’s original collage, from which the geometrical design of the border area (left and bottom) was taken.
Detail from the 1998 CD booklet
Besides, a complete line-up of ten musicians is also included in the booket. KINO‘s four core members were supported by Boris Grebenshikov, Sergey Kuryokhin, Peter Trashenkov, Vsevolod Gakkel, Igor Butman, and Alexander Bashlachev.
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 Kino Nachalnik Kamchatki T-shirt sold through best4u.com.ua |
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Some years ago, the same picture appeared on a T-shirt sold by the Ukranian company best4u.com.ua, but when I checked the website again in 2022, it was no longer available (although there are another thirty-three T-shirts of Viktor Tsoy and KINO external link). |
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In 2006, a friend of ours took pictures of both sides of E-E Kozlov's original LP sleeve at Georgy Guryanov's flat, using a 36 mm negative colour film. He shot them with a flash, which led to overexposure of the left border of the collage, more precisely, of the paper cut-out displaying a crowd of people set against a black background. In this way, the figures in the upper part of the cut-out are no longer distinguishable, and part of the black background has been "whitened". We still decided to publish the image on our website on the occasion of THE RAW, THE COOKED, THE PACKAGED The Archives of Perestroika Art, an exhibition at the Kiasma, Helsinki, which opened in late 2007 more >>. From this moment on, pictures of the original cover traveled the widths and depths of the internet, typically without E-E Kozlov's name, but easy to recognise because of the overexposed spot. They can be seen, for instance, on Wikipedia (Russian external link and English). I later inserted Evgenij Kozlov's copyright into the pictures displayed on our website. |
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| This overexposed feature also characterises Moroz Records' 2012 release of a first vinyl record of Nachalnik Kamchatki, which makes it highly plausible that the company copied the picture on our website and not the cover itself. The design faithfully reproduces Kozlov's lettering – including the colours of the letters – and the geometrical lay-out with dotted lines. Yet a different photo is used as centre-piece, Alexander Boyko‘s group portrait of the same four musicians, Yury Kasparan, Alexander Titov, Viktor Tsoy, and Georgy Guryanov.
The photo below, published in the internet, was shot at the exhibtion "ASSA", organized by Sergei Bugaev in St. Petersburg, May/June 2013. Read more about "ASSA">>. |
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КИНО «Начальник КАМЧАТКИ» - KINO Nachalnik Kamchatki, Moroz records, LP, 2012,
LP cover with Alexander Boyko’ group portrait of Georgy Guryanov, Yury Kasparan, Viktor Tsoy, and Alexander Titov
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 КИНО «Начальник КАМЧАТКИ» - KINO Nachalnik Kamchatki, Moroz records, LP, 2012, cover
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| Like E-E Kozlov's pictures, Alexander Boyko's pictures of Leningrad artists and musicians have become quite popular in Russia, where they are frequently published – with or without the photographer's name (more about Alexander Boyko's pictures>>). Yet I doubt that Boyko himself was involved in the project, since photographic prints of his works exist in several private Russian collections, and in 2012, Boyko was no longer living in Russia. I assume that E-E Kozlov's original picture would have been Moroz Records‘s first choice, but although E-E's pictures are also in may private collections, I've never seen this particular one anywhere. If my assumption is correct, then Boyko's picture was an alternative to E-E Kozlov's, since both artists took them around the same.
Plagiarism is even more flagrant with respect to the reverse side of the record sleeve: other than the 1996 production, it also uses E-E Kozlov’s lettering for the song titles. Regarding the colours, It is a dull copy of the original, although it takes up, from the 1996 layout, the yellow colour Moroz Records’ designers "invented" for the frame around the figures. There is actually one feature that wasn't copied: Kozlov’s name.The artist inserted обложка — Е. Козлов (cover – E. Kozlov) below Tsoy’s name at the lower right border of the original collage, but it isn't on Moroz Records’ cover. Instead, there is copyright note stating Все правы защищены, that is, "All rights reserved". |
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(E-E) Evgenij Kozlov: КИНО «Начальник КАМЧАТКИ» |
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 КИНО «Начальник КАМЧАТКИ» - KINO Nachalnik Kamchatki
KINO Nachalnik Kamchatki, Moroz Records, LP, back cover, 2012 |
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  KINO Nachalnik Kamchatki, Moroz Records, 2012, LP with gatefold sleeve, unfolded.
The sleeve was produced as a gatefold LP, which, when opened, displays a picture of a KINO performance, a text by Alexander Kushnir, the line-up of musicians, and some technical information, such as a note Фото и графические материялы из ариха В. Цоя / Picture and graphic design materials from the archive of V. Tsoy. But again, it has no mention of Evgenij Kozlov‘s name. From here it follows that Moroz Records, which had acknowledged E-E Kozlov's contribution before, albeit using it without his permission, had now removed the artist's name altogether. By 2012, Russian editors had became aware of copyright issues, and my conclusion is that Moroz Records, to be on the safe side, decided not to mention Kozlov at all. In fact, had the artist opted for claiming his legal rights in a court, he would have first had to prove that he was actually the author of the original album cover. Given the fact that he merely owned a photographic reproduction of it, this might have been difficult.
For a re-release of the LP in 2017, Moroz Record returned once more to the design of the 1996 CD and cassette with Joanna Stingray's picture as front cover and Timur Novikov's portrait of Tsoy as back cover.
Detail of the gatefold cover (inside). The last two lines, bottom right, mention the authors of the artworks Accordingly, the album also mentions both artists again – inside the gatefold, where, otherwise, the layout is the same as in the 2012. edition. The reproduction of the text on Discogs.com is very small, but it still allows to read Timur Novikov's and Evgenij Kozlov's names at the end of the last two lines. Whether this "recycled" cover design was thought to be commercially more successful than the one from 2012, or whether it was chosen to avoid the copyright issues of the 2012 release I cannot say. At any rate, it was the last one of Moroz Records' releases, because in 2018, Viktor Tsoy's heirs, having won proceedings against the company, started collaborating with Maschina Records – which led to another copyright conflict, but this time relating to the music, not to the cover design of Nachalnik Kamchatki. More precisley, it led to a conflict with Andrey Tropillo's rights on the recording. A more detailed account of this conflict is given in the next chapter – the introduction to the booklet for the 2021 Nachalnik Kamchatki release by AnTrop more>>.
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home // E-E // biographie // art // eros // Leningrad 80s // Valentin Kozlov // 2 x 3m // events // sitemap // kontakt /
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![Detail of the gatefold cover (inside). The last two lines, bottom right, mention the authors of the artworks портрет Виктора Цоя — Тимур Новиков (Portrait of Viktor Tsoy – Timur Novikov) [дизайн] обложки альбома — Евгений Козлов (Album cover [design] – Evgenij Kozlov)](../Nachalnik-Kamchatki/2017-Nachalnik-kamchatki-artists-mentions.jpg)