Andrei Karpenko is the brightest representative of Soviet independent music in the late eighties and early nineties. Despite the low fame and the small number of songs, Andrei became a cult figure in the history of Soviet and Russian rock music, having influenced many representatives of the genre. Andrei’s songs were distinguished by a deep philosophical meaning, vivid images and a tragic atmosphere, which at that time was an innovation in Russian music.
Biography
Andrei Karpenko was born on March 1, 1973 in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. There is almost no reliable information about his family. It is only known that the future musician grew up in extremely difficult conditions and already in high school he had to look for small part-time jobs after studying to help support his family.
early years
The early years of Andrei Karpenko's life are also a little-covered period of his biography. It is only known that he studied well at school, graduated from it with a silver medal. After the ninth grade, he worked as a handyman, a loader in a port, and a cleaner. Two years later, he decided to enter one of the technical schools in St. Petersburg, where he moved in the early nineties. The scholarship allowed the young creator not to look for any part-time jobs, and he had time for personal creativity, creating his own copyright world and a lyrical concept.
Solo work
Learning was easy for Andrey thanks to his experience in the technical field. The young man quickly understood the material being studied, in his spare time he composed his first author’s songs. Very soon, Andrei was invited to a local creative party, but at first, due to the nature of his character, he was embarrassed to perform his works in public. At meetings, he either sang songs by famous musicians at that time, or he was silent and listened to other performers, often accompanying those who did not own the instrument on the guitar.
The first songs of Andrei Karpenko (Henri Alpha) were distinguished by vivid imagery, lyricism and great semantic load, combined with a rich melodic structure.
Home recordings
The first recordings were made by Andrei at the initiative of his friend and classmate Valentin Bonch. Young people gathered after classes in Valentine's room and performed various songs of the group Aquarium, Cinema and Agatha Christie, which were popular at that time. One of these evenings, yielding to the persuasion of fellow students, Andrei Karpenko performed several of his songs, among which were “Leave Me”, “Eternal High” and “Icing of the Soul”. The compositions immediately won the success of Andrei’s friends, and soon, Valentin will record various versions of these songs on a tape directly in the dorm room. The record becomes popular among Andrei's classmates, and Karpenko is gradually becoming a prominent figure in the local underground, despite the small number of songs and rare performances.
Tien Shan
A year later, in his second year of study, Andrei Karpenko (Henri Alf) met with the local punk band Tien Shan. Its participants were pioneers of “free sound”, actively improvising and experimenting with various household objects, using them as musical instruments. Karpenko joins the group and participates in recording sessions. After several rehearsals, it was decided to lay Andrey's vocals on the noise wave of the band's sound. The result of this experiment was a joint cassette recording on which, in addition to recordings with shouts of Andrey Karpenko to the unstable sound of the instruments, Henri's solo acoustic performances in the dorm room were also recorded.
After this recording, the collaboration of Henri Alpha and the Tien Shan group ceased due to creative differences, as Andrei saw the concept of the group in creating lyrical works, and the group wanted to continue psychedelic experiments with sound, moving more and more from melodic drawings to chaotic improvisations .
"Picnic"
Andrei found complete understanding and support of his creative concept and author’s vision in the person of Edmund Shklyarsky, the leader of the Picnic group, whom he met in March 1995. By that time, Henry had already gained some fame in alternative Soviet music, and the young group was interested in collaborating with him.
Acquaintance and the first experimental rehearsal took place in a hostel with the assistance of Valentin Bonch.
It was Edmund Shklyarsky who became the first producer of Karpenko, persuading him to record three original songs for the upcoming album of the Picnic group. Shklyarsky believed that the gloomy romance and the stinging emptiness of Henri Alpha's songs would be the perfect complement to the material already written for the album.
In early 1995, in the branch of the Studio "Melody", located in St. Petersburg, was recorded several songs of Andrei, accompanied by musicians of the group "Picnic".
Ultimately, the album included three works by Andrey: “Hysteria”, “One, Two ...”, as well as the ballad “Helicopter” in two parts.
Immediately after recording the album, a concert was held in his support, in which Andrei also took part. Records from this concert were posted by Edmund Shklarsky on the Internet in early 2010.
Henri Alpha's song "Helicopter" gained great popularity, despite an impressive timing of almost nine minutes.
Leaving music
After the studio recording as part of the Picnic group, Andrei found himself in a quandary. The training at the institute was coming to an end, the performer had a choice - to start an active creative career or to get a job in a specialty. Being a modest man by nature, Andrei decides that he will not be able to achieve great success in music, since such work has already become irrelevant and could not bring at least minimal income. In 1996, Karpenko made the final decision on the completion of his creative activity, which he announced at the next student meeting, last performing his songs publicly.
Present
Currently, the fate of Karpenko (Henri Alpha) is unknown. It is only known that he works by profession in one of the enterprises of his native city - Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Despite numerous requests from fans, Andrei does not give interviews, does not perform at concerts and does not agree to make at least a few studio recordings. Since 2012, communities of fans of Karpenko’s work began to appear on social networks, in which his fans exchanged archived audio recordings, photos and shared memories.
Discography
Unfortunately, the songs of Henri Alpha were never compiled into a full-fledged music album. Andrei did not think about the professional career of a musician, so a small part of his work has been preserved to this day, represented by several studio works with famous groups, as well as home tape recordings.
If you restore the chronological order, then the dated list of records by Henri Alpha will look like this:
- 1990 - the first tape recording in the hostel;
- 1991 - a concert on the farm Kolomtsy;
- 1993 - concert in Wiesing, Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic;
- 1994 - the second tape recording in the hostel together with the Tien Shan group;
- 1995 - “Vampire Songs” (together with the “Picnic” group).
There are also several unknown records from the period 1990-1994, about which there is no information regarding the place and date.