Diana Arbenina
was born in year 1974 in a small Belorussian town Volojin that is located on
the border with
Poland.
A little bit latter her parents, who were journalists, took three-year-old
Diana to the Far North of Russia. As they were obsessed with their profession
they were constantly moving from one settlement of Chukotka and Kolima to
another. There Diana received general as well as musical education. Arbenina finished
secondary school in Yagodnoe in the city of
Magadan
she entered college, the faculty of foreign language.
"Night
Snipers" was born in August 1993, and in the beginning they existed as an
acoustic duet of Diana Arbenina and Svetlana Surganova. From years 1994 till
1996 “Snipers” were performing in
Saint
Petersburg clubs “Zasada”, “Belij Krolik”, “Romantik”,
“Classic”, “Tonika”. Besides, the group participated in the musical competition
broadcasted on TV “Vyes Peterburg” and took part in the festival of
noncommercial rock music “Babye Leto” as well as twelve hour city show “Russkij
Modern”. In November 1996 the duet performed a number of concerts for the
students of Den International Hojskole in Elsihor and Orhus (Danemark).
Sumultaneously Diana Arbenina continued her education already in
Sain
Petersburg
University that she
graduated in year 1998 and her specialty became “Russian language for
Foreigners”.
Starting from
February 1997 “Night Snipers” in the afforced composition (Aleksey
Ivanov-percussion, drums, and Jurij Degtyarov-bass guitar) participated in the
festival of acoustic rock that was taking place in the club “Pereval” and in
24-hours show that occurred at the embankment near Petropavlovskaya Fortress. They
also performed at the personal exhibition of the artists Alan Mayer and Igor
Golubenzev in the club “Dobrolet” and participated in the programs of night
clubs and art-café.
In August
1998 the first double album of the group called “A drop of tar in the barrel of
honey” was released. The songs from the album were taken for rotation by
“Europe Plus”,” Radio Baltic”, “Modern”, “Nostalgie”, “Russian Chanson”. The
duet created their second program even before the listeners got tired of the
first one. They continued to perform actively their musical tours over Magadan,
Byborg,
Pskov,
Omsk,
Danemark,
Sweden,
Finland…
By the end
of 1998 “Night Snipers” decided to become an electric group. Starting from
January 1999 started preparations of the program “Night Snipers” plus Goga
Kopylov, bass guitar and Alik Potapkin, drums. Remarkable professional level
and the experience of rhythm sections provided “Snipers” with the opportunity
to look at their old songs from a new angle and to create new songs at a new
quality level. After they had performed about 10 concerts in Sain Petersburg
“Night Snipers” with a great success participated in the festival “Autograd” in
the
Tolyatti city as specially invited guests.
In August
1999 the album “Child Babble” was released that contained home and studio
compositions of “Snipers” that were written in the period from 1989 till 1995.
In summer
2000 “Snipers” recorded a new electric album that was named “Rubej”. By
November the song “Spring 31” had risen to the top of “Top twelve” at the radio
station “Nashe Radio”. In December the group signed a contract on the record of
the album “Rubej” with the company Real Records. The presentation of the album
“Rubej” was performed on the 1st of March in the
Moscow
club “16 tonns”, and on the 11 of March in
Saint Petersburg in the club “Moloko”.
The group
finished working on its second electric album “Tsunami” in autumn 2002, and in
December the group parted with Svetlana Surganova. “Actually, the situation was
brewing a long time ago”, says Diana Arbenina. “Everyone has its own path, time
is the wisest cure and it will put everything into the right place”. On the 1st
of February “Night Snipers” presented the album “Tsunami” in “Lujniki”. While
working in electrical style the group, nevertheless, continued to experiment
with the acoustic sound. In October 2003 group discography widened and a new
acoustic album “Trigonometry” was added to it. It was recorded on the basis of
the concert of the same name in Mkhat named after
Gorky. Acoustic concerts in Mkhat became a benign
tradition for the “Night Snipers” where group turned to its origin and played incomparable
programs with exclusive episodes.
In October
2004 Company Real Records released the long awaited album “SMS”. It is next
regular record of “Night Snipers”. “SMS” must become an important mark in the
creative works of “Night Snipers”, a distinctive bearer of changes that are
being experienced by the group nowadays. At present “Night Snipers” are Diana
Arbenina (vocal, guitar, and songs), Ivan Ivolga (guitar), Fedor Vasilyev (bass
guitar), Dmitryi Gorelov (drums), Ayrat Sadykov (keyboard). New songs, new
sound, new attitude to music- “Night Snipers” experience unprecedented vein,
and the obvious evidence of that is the album “SMS”. The presentation of this
record occurred in the PC named after Gorbunov in the form of two triumphant
concerts.
In winter
2005 started another new and at first sight unexpected phase in the life of the
group, as they together with the famous Japanese
musician Kadzufumi Miyadzava performed in Moscow two concerts under the general
name “Simayta”. The song of the same name became the main song for the single
released by the Company Real Records. In April 2005 “Japanese story” continued at
this time at the motherland of Miyadzavaand the Russian musicians presented
their songs for the Japanese public to judge. The song “Koshka” that was
written by Diana Arbenina and recorded by Miyadzava became a real hit in the land
of the rising sun…
Mean while, May came and that means that the
time has come of already traditional acoustics in the Mkhat named after
Gorky. “Trigonometry-2” is
the name of the program that “Night Snipers” will present on the stage of the
26th of May, with the best songs and surprises without which “Sniper”
performances do not exist.
In 2005
Diana Arbenina participates in “The odd warrior”, a project of “B-2” rock band.
The first swallow of this project was the co-performance of the song “Slow
Star” with Leva B2.Composition “Because of Me”(the soundtrack to the movie “I
remain”), which Diana sang along with Shura B-2 became a continuation of the
tandem, and in 2007 already in the project “The odd warrior-2” Diana &
Shura performed a song “White Clothes”.
In may 2005
“Night Snipers” play in Mkhat a program named “Trigonometry -2”; this concert
is recorded and released in 2006 by the Real Records company as a double
cd-album, and also as a concert DVD. Also, in 2006 the album “Koshika” was
released, a Russian edition of the best of “Night Snipers”, which had been
realized a bit earlier in
Japan.
For this album the musicians recorded again and re-mixed some of their songs.
In spring
2007 another album “Bonnie & Clyde” has been released. It was recorded in
Moscow in the studio of Sergey Bolshakov; the mixing and
mastering processes took place in
London.
Shura B-2, Evgeniy Pankov and Oleg Chekhov contributed a lot in the creation of
this album. The presentation of “Bonnie & Clyde” occurred on the 26th of
May 2007 in DK ”Luzhniki”. The concert DVD “Live in Luzhniki” based on the
concert will be realized in the near future.
In summer
2007 “AST” company produces a book “The Escapist of Sleep”, which contains a
great amount of first time published poems, texts of songs, some prose, and
also illustrated collages made from pictures of Diana and her paintings. ”The
Escapist of Sleep” found its continuation in the beginning of 2008, when the
audio book “The Escapist of Sleep: I speak” was released. On this record Diana
reads her poems: solo, a capella, and along with the accompaniment of each of
the “Night Snipers” ’ musicians.
In
2007-2008 Diana together with an actor Yevgeniy Djatlov participated in the
“First channel” project “Two Stars”. The Arbenina-Djatlov duet got the second
place in the competition, along with a special prize, two golden stars from
Alla Pugacheva.
The first
half of the «snipers» 2008 consisted of a great number of tour concerts, as
well as the preparations to the upcoming anniversary. On the 19th of August
2008 “Night Snipers” turned 15 years. The rare acoustic album “Kanarsky”
dedicated to the 15th anniversary of “Night Snipers” was released on vinyl. It
was recorded in 1999 by Diana Arbenina, Svetlana Surganova with the help of a
“Snipers’” friend Alexander Kanarsky. The year 2008 was marked with the “Night
Snipers’” first grand scale acoustic tour along
Russia and abroad. “An Acoustic
Affair” first took place in June 2008 in
Moscow, in Mkhat named after Gorky, and later this program, containing of solo
acoustics of Diana Arbenina, fragments of the audio book ”The Escapist of
Sleep: I speak”, and sets of the full band, was seen by the spectators of tens
of the cities. The concert “The Last Bullet”, which took place in Moscow
International House of Music on the 17th of December, became the final chord of
the tour. In the very end of 2008the “AST” company released a new book of Diana
Arbenina. It’s called “The Lullaby in a Sniper’s Way” and it is an out-of-genre
canvas weaved from 366 dreams, the reality and the illustrations made by
authors.
