U-Piter

History

U-Piter came together on October 11, 2001, bringing together Vyacheslav Butusov, the former frontman of Nautilus Pompilius; Yuri Kasparyan, once the lead guitarist for Kino; Oleg Sakmarov, who had played with Aquarium and Kolibri; and Evgeny Kulakov. The group took its name from the Roman god Jupiter, but often wrote it using a mix of Cyrillic and Greek letters: Ю-πиτΣρ. Their first single, "Udarnaya lyubov'," arrived in November 2001. The debut album, Name of Rivers, followed in March 2003, featuring eleven songs all written by Butusov. Its title plays on the Church Slavonic placeholder term "имярек." That same year, they contributed the track "Surgi i lurgi" to a tribute album for the band Piknik. Their second album, Biografika, came out between June and August 2004, with songs like "Devushka po gorodu" and "Pesnya iduschevo domoi" getting heavy radio rotation. In 2008, bassist Sergei Vyrvich joined the lineup. That year also saw the release of their third album, Bogomol, and a tribute album for Nautilus Pompilius. June 2010 brought the fourth album, Tsvety i ternii, which included "Deti minut." This track appeared in the soundtrack for the film Игла Remix, with lyrics drawn from a poem by Kino's lead singer, Viktor Tsoi. The fifth and final album, Gudgora, came out in 2015. U-Piter disbanded in February 2017, following a tour through Siberia and the Ural region.