Lekarstvo ot Melanholii (L.O.M.) (MelancholyMedicin) A soft-, hard- and retro-rock band from Minsk. Full name is Melancholy Medicine.
The band was formed in the late 80’s as a student group. They were playing amateur hard-rock songs; covers as well as their own works. Evgeny Soldatenko is the leader of the band, the vocalist and one of the song-writers.
The band split up in 1991 and revived only in the end of 2003 presenting itself as a solo project of Evgeny Soldatenko.
There are some musicians that take part in recording CDs and in the shows as session musicians, although their presence is quite regular: Sergey Antishin (guitars, banjo, and arrangements), Vadim Chaikov (percussion instruments), Alexander Kalinovsky (bass guitar), Konstantin Goriachy (keyboards), Andrei Kleschev (saxophone), Inna Pereseckaya (backing vocals).
The most popular songs are: “Prosti-proschay” (Sorry and Goodbye), “Skripka I Osen’” (Violin and Autumn), “Assol”, “Sinee” (The Blue), “Muzyka dozhdej” (The music of the rains), “Ljut dozhdi” (The Rains Are Falling), “Blues Vesennih Kotov” (The Blues of The Spring Cats).
The main L.O.M. Evgeny Soldatenko aka Jack Vampire (J.V.) was born in Mogilev. He studied at school for some time, even in class with a biological bias. After school he didn’t find anything better but enter the biology department in BelarusianStateUniversity.
Until being given a certificate of degree he had to leave the alma mater twice. Being out, he had time to become secret service man and sergeant for two years, and to become a distinguished geologist on the Polar Ural and to work as a builder on river Yenisei.The work experience of Evgeny Soldatenko except for geology includes dozens of construction sites around the immense and boundless space of Former Soviet Union, and scientific work at the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry in Academy of Science, as well as a long-term flight in industrial and industrial-like organizations.
The creative career of E.S. has started in the 8th grade when he bought a guitar which cost him 7 rubles 50 kopecks (considerable amount of money for those days). He wrote his first song immediately – immortal hit “Schizo”. He got the music education in the back street. He knows notes approximately. The first experience of working in team with other talents happened in school under the label «Stray Cats». Later he was noticed in the duet of the authors “PitoN” («Pilgrims to Nowhere»: E.S. and Vadim Shmanay). When E.S. was doing his second year in the university he started to play in the band “Akvariumnye Rybki” (Aquarian fish) which later on grew into the group “Lekarstvo ot Melanholii”.
Recreation rooms and areas of hostels of the BelarusianStateUniversity of the Chemistry Department served as places to play. University holidays and student festivals served as occasions to play. At the same time the band was working on mood music for plays by the avant-garde theatre “Ekspromt” (impromptu) - the theatre where our E.S. was getting at everybody as a stage director. In spite of achieving some kind of success (a successful video was shot, and one of the L.O.M.’s songs even broke through on the National Channel which was very difficult thing to do in 1992) LOM splits up. This happens in the natural course of events by reason of finishing studies and geography and manufacture related job placement of graduates. This might have been the moment to call it a day…
However, after a rather long break L.O.M. was nevertheless restored by Evgeny in 2003, now in a studio variant. The break for 11 years paid off. There are more than 200 songs for the moment in the musician’s store – how many albums one may make! And the work is energetically goes on…
Evgeny Soldatenko says:
“Nowlookhere! He could (that is I could?) live quietly and with no worry in his cosy kitchen, couldn’t he? He could just happily drink vodka with pals, couldn’t he? He really pulled a boner in his old age by reliving the past and recalling the student days. He has recorded some songs after all! The songs that people liked most (they had plenty of time to do that) – the songs about this, that and the other – so to say, about life!.. Well, and as there was no band as such for a long time – he had to put out a feeler and ask the musical beau monde of Minsk about such issue: guys, who wants to play youth? You've got to hand it to the guys – they took up the call to play as session musicians in all modesty. There were true celebrities and profound experts among them: Sergey Antishin, Vadim Chaikov, Alexander Kalinovsky, Konstantin Goriachy, Andrei Kleschev, Inna Pereseckaya. Thanks them for everything!" Yours, E.S.
Also there’s a hope to make some CDs jointly with friends (home-grown poets and composers) within the framework of the L.O.M. project. Believe me, loads of masterpieces lead a dull and useless life in the kitchens. Not issued and not played for public at large. I just feel sorry for these masterpieces! And me, a male, haven’t been shaving for a long time, not given to shedding tears, is in tears over this fact… Thus, the L.O.M. project threatens to develop into the Creative Laboratory of L.O.M. which will specialize in culturing and cherishing something (or somebody) tasty.
P.S.
L.O.M. has three albums at the present time. Three more are in progress (keep up with the news).
Discography:
“Prosti-proschay” (Sorry and Goodbye) (album, CD, West Records, 2004)
“Lomtik mango” (A Piece of Mango) (album, CD, West Records, 2007)
“Without…” (album, CD, West Records, 2008)
Membership:
Concert membership and basic studio membership:
Evgeny Soldatenko (lyrics, music, vocals, ideas) Sergey Antishin (guitars, banjo, arrangements) Konstantin Goriachy (keyboards) Alexander Kalinovsky (bass guitar) Vadim Chaikov (percussion instruments) Inna Pereseckaya (backing vocals) Andrei Kleschev (saxophone) Igor Brankovsky (keys)
