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Kombinatsiya (founded 1988): “Two Slices of Sausage” (1990)

One of these Wende posts concerns the Saint Petersburg all-female band Kolibri, who specialized in unemotional, fashionable commentary on mainstream pop. Launched in the same year––1988––Kombinatsiya were another ensemble consisting entirely of women, yet embodying the commercialism that Kolibri parodied and/or disparaged. The two outfits mirror one another.

Founded in the provincial city of Saratov, the group chose a double entendre for their name. Not only does it refer to the quintet’s alleged “combination” of musical styles and/or members; it also refers to women’s lingerie, as in the French combinaison. Backwater musicians needed to fight for attention in a tough market with no regional media––yet. The need for Moscow’s limelight called for desperate measures.

The group’s primary success, however, came not though titillation, but instead wit. Early on, the women began to sing of various failings in post-Soviet society, specifically from a female point of view. Among them were empty shops, the woeful habits of small-town men, and the likelihood of a dead-end marriage or a wretched job. Despite the huge stylistic differences between Kombinatsiia and Kolibri, the most famous song of both concerns the pros and cons of marrying an American––and then fleeing Russia forever. Behind the apparent jollity some sobering concerns are shared.

Within months of the USSR collapsing, the group’s best-known member had quit to start a (successful) solo career. Wishful plans for a US tour fell through, while the band’s manager was accused of professional harassment and a fruitless––in fact, never-ending––search for new female voices began. It was all downhill from here. Several men and women associated with the band expired, died in accidents, or were murdered. 

Somehow, despite these tragedies and an infuriatingly fickle lineup, Kobinatsiya still appear at retro-parties and remain a telling document of the early 1990s, both musically and professionally.

1990

Kombinatsiya (founded 1988): “Two Slices of Sausage” (1990)

Svetlana Geiman (aka Linda, b. 1977): "Northern Wind" (Live, 2018)

The 1990s, among many commercial changes in Russian popular music, witnessed the rise of producers. Free of politics, yet now reliant upon cash flows, a producer could shape the sound of a young performer in dramatically new ways––sometimes using technical expertise garnered in Soviet sound studios. One of the most successful producer/performer collaborations of the late 1990s was between Maxim Fadeev and Svetlana Geiman, a then-unknown singer from Kazakhstan. 

Geiman’s grandmother had been exiled to Kazakhstan in 1941; her grandfather was executed by Stalin’s decree four years earlier. The demise of Soviet power in the 1980s allowed the family to move gradually back to Russia, specifically to the nation’s version of Detroit––Togliatti. As Geiman’s father met with increasing success in post-Soviet banking, the family moved again, this time to Moscow. 

Svetlana entered an elite music school and entered state-run competitions, where she was eventually introduced to Fadeev and would soon begin recording under the name Linda, in honor of her exiled grandmother. 

Max Fadeev was intent on erasing the maximum number of clichés from Russian popular song. Hence the debut collaboration between himself and Linda in 1994, “Songs of Tibetan Lamas.” Although its insistence upon audible forms of some imagined “Orient” may seem rather studied today, the LP would mark a dramatic move from conservatism towards studio wizardry in the 1990s. 

As mentioned, though, studio time was always dependent upon cash, and Russian music magazines of the time were full of rumors that Geiman’s father had bankrolled the project from start to finish. Fadeev and Geiman thus began another trend in popular song, albeit unwillingly: the cynical post-Soviet conviction that lots of money and a good producer can compensate for minimal talent. 

Recent years have witnessed a comeback by Linda, as in this 2018 radio performance of an early hit, stripped down to absolute basics in the name of self-respect and a newly found self-reliance.

Svetlana Geiman (aka Linda, b. 1977): "Northern Wind" (Live, 2018)

Selections from the Wende Collection. Follow us on social media @wendemuseum

Kombinatsiya (founded 1988): “Two Slices of Sausage” (1990)

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