The Ark is a popular Russian musical group. The group was organized back in 1990 in Moscow. The permanent leader of the team is the well-known performer Olga Arefieva. It is her presence that unites all the features of the "Ark." In addition, the team became famous due to a duet called "Anatomy" with the regular participation of Peter Akimov.
Over the years, the Ark group has changed in every way. The composition of the team changed, new projects and concert programs were created, etc. Want to learn about the evolution of this musical group? Welcome to this article!
Acoustic Ark
Acoustic-Ark was the group’s first and most successful project. It has existed since 1990 (albeit with short interruptions). As the name implies, the "Ark" group performs acoustic musical compositions. In addition to Olga herself, the first acoustic line-up included a talented violinist, singer Mila Kinina and popular guitarist Vladimir Simbirtsev. In those days, instrumental music was very popular. It is for this reason that the team rather rapidly gained momentum. For example, a year later Arefyeva and the Ark group recorded their first magneto album.
However, soon Olga Arefieva dissolved the old line-up and took other musicians into the group. For the next couple of years, Acoustic became the main project for the performer. It is for this reason that Olga paid all the attention to the group. And it bore fruit. Thanks to the activities of "Acoustic" in Moscow began the active development of the rock-acoustic direction, which had its own characteristic features. In addition, a club called "Aku" was created in Izmailovsky Park (Moscow). Olga Arefieva and the group "Ark" have released quite a few albums. The most popular of them are Side From, Girl Scherzo, Bells.
"Ark. Electricity"
In the 90s, Western culture began to penetrate into the domestic show business. It is for this reason that Olga Arefieva launched such projects as the Blues Ark and Reggae Ark. In addition to the performer herself, the group included Sergey Smirnov (bassist), Andrei “Andy” Sorokin (guitarist), Barinov Aleksey (drummer) and Sergey “Klavdiy” Kurgalimov (keyboard player).
The blues variation of the group was not very popular. It is for this reason that this branch pretty quickly sunk into oblivion. However, the "Reggae Ark" was quite in demand. During 1994-1996, he, along with "Acoustics" was the main project Arefieva. The composition of the reggae branch often changed. According to Olga, the best variation of "Reggae" consists of guitarist Igor "Stalker" Vdovchenko, drummer Vsevolod Korolyuk, bass player Mikhail Trofimenk, drummer Boris Markov and herself.
Starting in the second half of the 90s, the Reggae Ark began to change. First, the reggae prefix was removed from the name of the group in connection with the change in the repertoire. And already in the 2000s, the branch turned into "Electricity." As the name implies, the team focused on power tools. Despite this, Olga continued to write and perform songs. At present, the Ark. Electricity group is performing musical compositions from such albums as Kon-Tiki, Batakakumba, Snow, etc.
"Chanson Ark"
In the wake of the popularity of chanson, Olga has assembled a group focused on this musical direction. "Chanson Ark" was born in 2003. The repertoire consisted of hard romances, homeless, love, dance compositions and other things. In 2005, the only album was released called "Spins, Turns."
The Royal Ark
This branch appeared in the mid-2000s. The project was a one-man show, which consisted of musical compositions by various authors. Olga independently played and sang at performances to the accompaniment of a cello or a piano.