Mumiy Troll

Mumiy Troll
Mumiy Troll in 2013
Background information
Origin	Vladivostok/Moscow, Russia
Genres	Rock, alternative rock
Years active	1983–present
Website	Official site
Members	Ilya Lagutenko Oleg Pungin Alexander Kholenko Artyom Kritsin Pavel Vovk
Past members	Yuri Tsaler Eugene "Sdwig" Zvidionny Olesya Lyashenko Denis Transkiy

Mumiy Troll (Russian: Му́мий Тро́лль [ˈmumʲɪj ˈtrolʲ]) is a Russian rock group, founded in 1983 in Vladivostok by vocalist and songwriter Ilya Lagutenko (Илья Лагутенко). The literal name of the band, 'The mummies' troll', is a pun on Moomin Troll, the series of Finnish children's books by Tove Jansson.

The group was founded on 16 October 1983 in Vladivostok. In 1985, they recorded the first album, Novaya luna aprelya, which was eventually distributed on tape. Mumiy Troll broke up when Lagutenko, who graduated in Mandarin and Chinese Economy, went to serve in the Soviet army (Russian Air Navy). Then he came back, the band released the second album, Delay Yu-Yu in 1990. The early concerts were proven commercially unsuccessful. They first gained immense popularity with the release of their first (official) album Morskaya (Морская, Marine) in May 1997, which showcased a combination of melodic hard rock and Lagutenko's offbeat lyrics and coy, androgynous performance style. The second CD Ikra (Икра, Caviar), followed seven months later, and was equally successful.

Mumiy Troll remains one of Russia's most popular musical acts. Ilya Lagutenko defined their music style as rockapops. Once again Mumiy Troll became the leader of an entire new musical trend copied now to greater or lesser degree by Russian wannabees and mainstream artists. Being an example of one of the successful long-standing independent artists in Russia band released 8 studio albums so far, wrote and produced soundtracks for a full length cartoon movie and gave a new sound to classic Russian silent sci-fi movie and donated tracks to feature films including Russian blockbuster Night Watch, where Ilya also plays the Vampire. His face is on the cover of the American release.