Gruppa Kino

Kino Кино
Yuri Kasparyan (seated) and Viktor Tsoi (standing) photographed in 1987 during a concert in Leningrad
Background information
Origin	Leningrad, Soviet Union
Genres	Rock post-punk, new wave, jangle pop, folk rock, gothic rock
Years active	1982–1990
Labels	AnTrop, Yanshiva Shela, Melodiya, Moroz Records
Associated acts	U-Piter, Aquarium, Pop-mekhanika, Dzhungli
Past members	Viktor Tsoi† Aleksei Rybin Oleg Valinsky Yuri Kasparyan Alexander Titov Georgy Guryanov† Igor Tikhomirov

Kino (Russian: Кино́ "cinema", also "film", pronounced [kʲɪˈno]) was a Soviet rock band formed in Leningrad in 1982. The band was co-founded and headed by Viktor Tsoi, who wrote the music and lyrics for almost all of the band's songs. Over the course of eight years, Kino had released over 90 songs spanning over seven studio albums, as well as releasing a few compilations and live albums. The band's music was also widely circulated in the form of bootleg recordings. After Tsoi's death in a car accident in 1990, the band shortly broke up after releasing their last album, consisting of songs that Tsoi and the group were working on in the months before his death.

Kino was formed in 1981 by the members of two earlier groups from Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), Palata No. 6 and Piligrim. They initially called themselves Garin i Giperboloidy after Aleksei Tolstoi's novel The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin. The group consisted of Viktor Tsoi, guitarist Aleksei Rybin, and drummer Oleg Valinskiy. They began rehearsing, but Valinskiy was drafted and had to leave the band. In the spring of 1982, they began to perform at the Leningrad Rock Club and met with the influential underground musician Boris Grebenshikov. It was around this time that they finally changed the band's name to Kino. The name was chosen because it was considered short and "synthetic," and the band members took pride in that it had only two syllables and was easy to pronounce by speakers all over the world. Tsoi and Rybin said later that they had got the idea for the name itself after having seen a bright cinema sign.

Kino released their debut album, 45, in 1982. Since the band only consisted of two members, Grebenshikov suggested that members of his band Aquarium assist the band in recording the album. These included cellist Vsevolod Gakkel, flutist Andrei Romanov, and bassist Michael Feinstein-Vasilev. Since there was no drummer, they used a drum machine instead. This simple composition made the album sound lively and bright. Lyrically, it resembled earlier Soviet bard music for its romanticism of city life and the use of poetic language. The album consisted of thirteen songs and was named 45 in reference to its length. The group's popularity was rather limited at the time, so the album was not considered much of a success, and Tsoi stated later that the record had come out crudely and he should have recorded it differently.